Tropical agriculture : a treatise on the culture, preparation, commerce, and consumption of the principal products of the vegetable kingdom / by P.L. Simmonds.

  • Peter Simmonds
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tropical agriculture : a treatise on the culture, preparation, commerce, and consumption of the principal products of the vegetable kingdom / by P.L. Simmonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    with which they get through their harvesting than in a good result, and much coffee is wasted. Besides the Government culture there is a good deal of coffee raised by private growers. The tree bears fruit there in the fourth year, and continues to yield up to the fifteenth year or longer. It blossoms generally three times in the year, so that it may be said there are three gatherings of the berry. The comparative progress of coffee production in Java is shown by the exports, which were in Cwts. 1829 375 1839 1,000,000 Cwts. 1859 1,195,380 1869 3,299,000 The crops were defective from 1864 to 1867. The export has occasionally reached 170,000,000 lbs., and the production is regaining its old footing. The exports, however, include various receipts from the other islands, although shipped under the general designation of Java coffee. The sales of Java coffee in Holland in 1873 amounted in value to over 5,000,000Z. The quantity of coffee delivered into the Government stores at Java of late years, has been as follows : Year. Piculs. Average price paid. Net sale price in Holland. florins. florins. 1869 962,800 14-95 38-76 1870 986,038 14-48 36-73 1871 446,304 15-97 39-36 1872 985,96] 773,920 15-1:7 48-36 1873 15-80 60-96 • The gross price paid to the natives for the coffee is 26 florins per picul, deducting from these the duty of 10 florins. The number of trees in the Government plantations, irrespective of those in the gardens of the native chiefs, was in 1873, 239,079,225. According to the report of a Commission of Inquiry submitted to the Second Chamber of the States of the Netherlands in February, 1875, the culture of coffee carried on in Java on account of the Government, has remained stationary for forty years, notwithstanding the large quantity of land and labour available, while the consump- tion and value of the product have continued to increase during the period. Sumatra.—After Java, Sumatra is the next island which raises coffee in large quantity, and as it has been greatly taken up by the native cultivators, the island may, when the trees planted come into full bearing, yield a considerable crop. The production at present ranges from 13,000,000 to 17,000,000 lbs. The beans are dark brown, occa- sionally black, and the last kind is but of poor quality.
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