Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-07-28
Grows in All the Islands in Great
Abundance.
MIGHT SUPPLY THE UNITED STATES
The Blight and How 1t Ruined the
Java Plantations.
y VISIT TO a SULU ESTATE

tC"Yyrl.ht. 1900, by Frank C. Carirnter.)
Sir.,iaI CORES rondence of The Ever:n= Star.
JOLO. ISLAND OF SUI.U, June 4. 1900.
The United States uses as much coffee as
all the rest of the world put together We
import more than $Sn.0on.1o0 worth every
year. and annually consume more than
eleven pounds 10 every man, woman and
child in our country. We are increasing
our consumption every year, and the Bra
zilians and other coffee producing peoples
of the world are fattening themselves on
our appetite. There IS a bare probability.
however, that the days of their fairness
will cease l saw excellent coffee grown
In all parts OF Porto Rico and Cuba. and
there are evidences here which lead to the
belief that the Philippines might supply a
great share of the worlds product. 1 saw
an experimental plantation today which
Surpasses in It's luxuriant growth any cof-
fe@ plantation OF Brazil. 1 found excellent
coffee trees about Zamboanga and in other
parts of Mindauoa, and there are scatter
ing plants as far north as the upper end
If LuZon.
The Coffee Helt of the Philippines.
The Philippines lie in one of the great
coffee belts of the world. Those who have
paid most attention to the cultivation OF
This crop have decided that the best coffee
grows within Is degrees Of the equator.
although in some places an excellent article
Is produced as far from it as - 30 de-
GreeS. In America. for instance, we find
good coffee all the way from Mexico to
Paraguay and southern Brazil. The bulk
OF th,. brazilian product is grown in Santos
and T;in Janeiro. fully as far from the
equator rs northern Luzon. and the plants
thrive best al an altitude of from 1.nD to
/ .,sD feet above the sea. In Java Just be-
low here and between this and the equator
some IT the best coffee known to the world
i found. so that the whole OF the Philip
pines may he said to be in the coffee pro-
6ucing zone
The lands here are of a nature adapted
to the product. They are rolling and
mountainous. So that almost any desired
altitude can be secured. The planta lion
which l visited here in Sulu is only 100
feet above sea level, but there Is no doubt
that the berries will ripen in this climate
high 500 feet The fact that the
mountainous regions are the best places for
coffee culture Is a very important one to
the United States. for as yet little more
than the lowlands of the Philippine Is
lands have been taken up by the people.
and almost all of the mountain lands be-
long to our government.
Where the Industry Was Born.
1t is IN this part of the world that the
coffee industry as one of the great world
products was born. We usually think of
coffee as originating in Arabia, but the
Arabian trees came from AbysSina and
their product was so small that coffee was
not generally used until the plantations of
Java were started. This. was just about
Iwn hundred and ten years ago. At that
time old governor general of the Dutch
East Indies got some Arabian coffee seeds
from q sailor and planted them in his gar
den in Batavia. They sprouted. and within
four years were each producing from two
TO three pounds per year From their seeds
other Tees were set out. and Java became
the coffee country Of the world. From its
plantations seeds Were taken To the West
indies. Mexico. Venezuela and Brazil. 50
that Java is really the mother Of the great
coffee industry of today. Since then the
child has 50 far 0utstripped its parent that
today lava produces only about one-eigh-
;.enth IF the coffee consumed by man. Her
annual product IS not now much more than
IutHs'En pounds whereas last year the
worlds production amounted to about
--'sH'-HnosI pounds.
The BOthersome Parasite.
TIL" Java coffee trees have been seriously
affected during recent years by the blight
that today there are not more than half
many plantations rs there were some
Years. ago. The blight has also afflicted the
Hawiian Islands and il has practically
ruined the coffee industry Of the northern
Philippines In 1879 1JUDu1 pounds of
"pr-r We're shipped away from Manila and
now the shipments do not exceed 300 $50
pounds
Java * trying to avoid the blight by
planting a species of Liberian coffee which
= said IL resist II. and this is the character
%, tn" coffee here at JolO | met a coffee
planter In Honolulu who told me they had
recently discovered an antidote for the