The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-18
COFFEE AMONG our PRODUCTS
FORMS AN IMPORTANT CROP IN
OUR NEW POSSESSIONS.


S65, .OOO-COffee n Large Crop in
Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Is
lands-The Possibilities in Cuba
Very Great.
Washington Aug 1.-THE fact that
coffee is readily grown in all the islands
now coming under the control of the
United States lends interest to some fig
ures of the treasury bureau of statistics
which show that coffee, last year, was the
greatest item in our imports and that the
years importations of that article were
the greatest in our history.
Porto Rico and Hawaii have for years
grown a fine grade of coffee, Cuba form
erly produced it in large quantities, and
the Philippine Islands have for years had
a reputation of producing a grade of cot
fee equalling that of Java, and even com
pairing favorably with Arabia's world
famed Mocha. The United States has
been for years the largest coffee using
country in the world, our purchases since
1890 having averaged $90,0OO,00O per annum
in value, but it was reserved for the fiscal
year 1898 to show the largest imports OF
coffee in our history, bringing the average
per capita consumption among our popu-
lation up to the highest point ever known.
The coffee importations for the fiscal
year 1898. just ended, were S7O,5l4,2l5
pounds. which is nearly 20 per cent. great
er than in 1897, so per cent. greater than
in 1898, practically double that of 1880 and
more than three times that of 1874. De
| Quoting the expectations, which amounted
to 1882 500 pounds, the consumption OF
! the fiscal year 1898 would stand at eleven
| and five-tenths pounds per capita, against
| nine and nine-tenths In 1897 eight and
| two-tenths in 1893, seven and eight-tenths
| in 1890, six and nine-tenths in 1871 five
| and one one-hundredth in 1867, four and
| nine-t enths in 1856 three and seven tenths
! in 1864 and two and two-tenths in 1863
! The war period of 1876 showed the low
| est per capita consumption of coffee in
| our history despite the large use of this
| article in the army, while the brief war
! period in 1898 caused no dminution in the
| Imports the total for April May and June
being 245 100000 pounds, against l93,0O00O0
| in the corresponding months of the preced-
ing year.
The large importation of coffee during
! the year just ended was probably due in
| some degree to its phenomenally low price,
the average value of the years imports
being 74-10 cents per pound
against an average of II cents last year,
| IA Clio in 1895, and 16 40 cents in 1895. The
quotations to the bureau of statistics re
| port the wholesale price of Rio NO. Z, a
standard grade for quotations, from tve
| and one-han to ~ cents in the New York
markets in the fiscal year 1898, against 912
cents per pound in 1897, 1112 in 1896, 151a in
! 1895, 171h in 1894, and 1872 in 1893. 1t may be
| added, however, that while prices have
greatly fallen in recent years, the intro
duction of machinery, the cheapening OF
freight rates and the general improved IA
cnities for production and transportation
| stil leave to producers, 1t is said, a COM
Portable margin of profit, especially on bet
ter grades of coffee.
The total value of the coffee imported
into the United States in the fiscal year
| 1898 was, despite the low prices of the
year, S65. O67 561, against $50, 5O7 $50 In 1888;
$51 914 COS in 1878; $25 2SS, 451 in 1868; $S
! $40 in 1853 and So 249, 98 in 1S4S. Thus the
money sent abroad for coffee in the year
! just ended is eight times that OF a half a
century ago, and nearly three times that
| of 1868 The cost of the coffee imported
into the United States during the past ten
years has been $S75, 494, al, these figures be-
| ing the prices paid In the foreign markets
! at the port of expectation Thus it appears
in the decade just ended there has gone
out of the country an average of $Sl 800, 600
per annum for an article which may be
/
coming under the jurisdiction of the Unit
| ed States.
Practically one-half of the coffee grown
| in the world now comes to the United
| States The latest estimates put the COT
| fee production of the world at 1000 900, 600
pounds per annum, while as shown above,
! the imports into the United States last
wear. were more than half that amount.
| OF the total coffee production of the
world about two-thirds is grown in Bra
ill where an export duty of Il per cent.
| is placed on every pound of coftee eX-
| ported The other third of the world
| production which is grown outside OF
| Brazil is scattered around the world in
the belt extending to the S0th degree on
each side of the equator the most sue
cessful locations being well watered noun
tain slopes from 1000 to 1900 feet above
the sea level. The requisites for coffee
production are found in all of the Islands
| now likely to come under control of the
| Tinted States while the fact that Brazil,
| the great coffee producer of the world,
places an export duty on all coffee eX-
| ported operates to the advantage OF those
desiring 10 enter upon the productioh Oh
this article either for home consumption
| or for competition In the markets of the
world.
| siderable coffee, this being her most i'm
nortant export and amounting to from %
| C{O000 to D,0O,OU POUNDS per ailhuiii MI
| l. p yI-hurber a well known authority on
mis- subject in his book Coffee, From
Plantation to Cup" says: Porto Rico
| furnishes a coffee that is In great favor
| IN Snain and in italy and also on he
il,nd Of Cuba. The cultivation is car
RED on largely in the provinces Of Maya
enez Ponce. Guayanilla, Aguadilla, Are
cibo and ST. John In haVor this
ranks as a mild coffee.
THE coffee producing possibilities I'm Gu
ba are said 70 be very great. Mr.. Thomas
r Dawley, Jr., says, in the 1897 volume
of the American Annual Cyclopaedia
! "Coffee was at one time the principal
eource of Cuba's wealth. In the early part
of the present century 100000 pounds Of
coffee were produced In Cuba In a single
year, representing money vaiue OF $zOU"',
600. III was e9tii"''s =,
that In 1898 there were six
coffee estates to one Of sugar,
one plantation Is mentioned as having
! O00 600 trees, and the writer has found
/ - or4boptic account of a plantation con-