Chapter II: Geographical Distribution

The Coffee plant, although now so widely and extensively grown and cultivated in both hemispheres, and to be found in all the Botanic gardens as well as in many of the private conservatories of the new and old worlds, was entirely unknown outside of Abyssinia and Arabia up to the close of the seventeenth century. Ray, in his “History of Plants,” published in 1688, expresses his surprise “that the neighboring countries of Europe should permit so rare a treasure to be confined to a single province, and wonders what watchful dragon is employed by the natives to prevent strangers from procuring either the plant or its seed, which could be readily grown in similar climates and soil;” adding, “It cannot be imagined how the enterprising commercial nations of Europe, which founded colonies in the tropics can be so inattentive to the value and importance of such an acquisition.” Whether acting on this suggestion or not, the plant soon afterwards was introduced and extensively cultivated in many of the countries colonized by Europeans.

Between well-recognized limits north and south of the equator Coffee is found growing and bearing highly profitable crops in a wide range of countries to attempt anything like an exhaustive account of which, is impossible within the range of a single chapter. Originally a native of Southeastern Africa the coffee plant has been widely distributed, successfully cultivated and propagated in regions and countries geographically apart and in districts widely differing in climatic and topographic conditions, and as having been found to endure greater extremes of climate, variations in soil and situation than any other variety of plant of tropical origin. Its facility of propagation and production under such extreme conditions is admitted by botanists as most remarkable and equalled only by few members of the vegetable kingdom, its cultivation at the present time extending over the entire tropical belt of the globe.

It is practically indigenous to almost the whole of Africa, being one of the few useful economic products that the African flora has as yet given to the world. It is to be found growing there abundantly in a wild state, particularly between the 5th and 15th parallels, and in a state of cultivation on the west coast in Liberia, Loango and northern Angola, as well as in many of the districts lying between the lower Congo and the latter country, wherein no white man has as yet penetrated, its planting and gathering being carried on by the natives, who bring their harvests down to the coast at Ambrig and neighboring settlements to sell to the white traders. The Portuguese colonists of Principe and Sao Thorné, cultivate coffee extensively, their products standing in high repute. It has been grown with success in the Gaboon by French missionaries, and some desultory planting is also being carried on in Senegal, St. Helena, Sierra Leone and the Gambia colonies. It grows wild in the Congo region, the districts around Glandypool being eminently adapted to its cultivation, but is as yet not taken advantage of there, the natives of these countries, unlike those further south, ignoring the properties of its fruit.

It is cultivated in Natal and on the Zambesi river as well as in Usumbara, opposite to Zanzibar, which presents a splendid field for Coffee planting, containing as it does admirable soil, cheap labor, easy transport and land which is to be had for next to nothing, the missionaries distributing the Coffee seed among the inhabitants to induce them to cultivate it more extensively. While further into the interior, towards Pare, Nyanza and Killimanjaro, there are increasingly fine sites and suitable soil for successful and profitable Coffee planting only owned as yet by the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. It is to be found both in a wild state as well as in a state of cultivation in Abyssinia and the Nyassa district, being also cultivated for commercial purposes further north in lower Egypt, Nubia, Somali and the Soudan, as well as in Mozambique, and the islands of Madagascar, Bourbon and Mauritius. But the total yield of Africa so far as its influence on the world’s supply is concerned is comparatively insignificant, the export capacity of the latter countries not exceeding 800 tons annually. The total product of the eastern provinces of Africa taken in connection with the small quantities raised on the west coast making Africa contribute only between 3,000 to 4,000 tons to the world’s production, this amount including all the Coffee grown in Egypt and the interior countries of that continent.

From Africa the coffee plant was undoubtedly carried to Arabia, but at what period of the world’s history or under what circumstances is not definitely known. It was introduced from Arabia to Java in 1690, according to Boerhave, who tells us that “Nicholas Wilser, Burgomaster of Amsterdam and Governor of the Dutch East India Company, in that year instructed Van Horn, the then Governor of Batavia, to procure some plants or seeds of the Coffee tree from Arabia and endeavor to cultivate them in that settlement.” Although its introduction into Java is placed later by Stavornius, who claims that the plant was first carried from Mocha to Batavia as late as 1722 by Zwardekiom, the governor of the colony in that year, other authorities claiming that Zwardekiom only helped to extend its cultivation on that island. The latter account is probably the most correct one, as it is recorded that coffee in the bean, grown in Java, was offered for sale in the Amsterdam market the exact year that Stavornius states that it was first introduced into that island. Be this as it may, the undertaking was successful from the beginning, many plants being propagated there, one of which, the first seen in Europe, was sent to the botanic garden in Amsterdam, where it in due time bore fruit. Many young trees were subsequently propagated from this plant and distributed among the gardens and conservatories of Europe, one of these being sent as a rare present to the king of France. The Dutch later extending the cultivation of coffee to Sumatra, Celebes, Bali, Timour and many other of the smaller islands of the Malay archipelago.

The Coffee plant was introduced into India, on the Malabar coast, about the year 1700, from Aden, although it is claimed to have been grown in that country, in the province of Mysore, long anterior to that year, tradition, relating that the plant was first introduced by Baba Booden, a Musselman pilgrim, who brought “seven berries” with him from Arabia about the year 1600, which he is said to have planted around his hut in the hills of Mysore, near which coffee trees over one hundred years old are yet to be seen. The earliest written account of the cultivation of the coffee plant in India is that contained in a Dutch work, entitled “Letters from Malabar,” by Jacob Visscher, chaplain at Cochin, in one of which he states that “the Coffee shrub is planted in gardens there for pleasure, and yields plenty of fruit, which attains a proper degree of ripeness, but has not the refined taste of Mocha coffee.” The exact year in which these letters were written is not known, but the Dutch editor’s preface is dated 1743, so that it may be concluded that the plant must have been introduced and known in India prior to that year, although there is no official record made of the plant or its product in that country further back than 1822, and though undoubtedly grown there at an early period, does not seem to have met with much attention there up to the close of the last century, no allusion being made to it in any Indian work until we come to “Heynes’ Tracts,” published in 1800, in one of which we are merely told that coffee was then being sold in the bazaars of Bangalore and Seringapatam. At the present time Coffee is grown all along India from the northern limits of Mysore and south to the summits and slopes of the western Ghauts in British Cape Comorin, Coorg and Travancore, in the Wynaad and Neilgherry mountains, as well as in the slopes of the Shevany and Pulney hills. In 1880 over 500,000 acres had been taken up for Coffee culture in the Cochin, Madras, Mysore, Travancore, Belgaum and Bengal presidences, of which nearly 200,000 acres have now maturing plants. A very large portion of the surface of Burmah which still remains in its primeval state of unproductive jungle--owing to the almost total absence of natural energy on the part of the natives--is admirably adapted to the successful and profitable cultivation of Coffee. While in the hilly districts of the east coast of the Gulf of Siam, Cochin-China and the Straits settlements, the cultivation of Coffee is carried on to a limited extent, some fine samples being shown at the Exhibition of 1862.

The Coffee plant was introduced from Java into the island of Ceylon by the Dutch in 1720, where they began to cultivate it without any successful results, their efforts being confined to the lowlands in the districts of Galle and Negonogo, the location proving unfavorable in soil and temperature, the natives being also opposed to the innovation. But although some coffee of excellent quality was produced, notwithstanding these obstacles, it was found that it could not be cultivated there to advantage, when compared with the Java product. Yet though suspended for a time by the Dutch, it was not entirely abandoned by the native Cingalhese, who having, in the meantime, learned the commercial value of the article, continued to grow it in small quantities, so that after the British obtained possession of the island the Moors, who collected it in the villages, brought the hulled beans to Galle and Colombo, to barter them for cutlery, cotton and trinkets. It is claimed, on the other hand, to have been grown in Ceylon long before the arrival of the Dutch, and even the Portuguese, but that the preparation of a beverage from its fruit was unheard of by the natives, who only employed its tender leaves for their curries, and its delicate, jassamine-like flowers for ornamenting their shrines and temples. On the occupation of Ceylon, after its concession to the British in 1825, however, the English troops found the coffee tree growning in profusion in the vicinity of the temples in Kandy, and also large coffee gardens, highly cultivated, were found on the banks of the river Mahawelli and close to the palace of Hangaurau.

The coffee plant was introduced into the Phillipine Islands by Spanish missionaries from Java about 1740, but a species of wild coffee trees have been found on the island of Luzon, the berries being left ungathered, the natives being ignorant of their use or preparation, there being well-authentic instances of the same kind at the present day where the natives wonder what is done with the berries when hulled and cleaned, whether it is eaten or for what purpose intended. It was first introduced into the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius by the French through Du Fougerais Grenier in 1717, from Arabia and from Mozambique to Madagascar by natives about the same period.

The island of Borneo grows good Coffee, and since the country has been opened up to settlers some 200,000 acres of forest lands have been selected by Cantonese, European and Australian planters for this purpose, the gardens around Silam particularly being very encouraging as regards the new product. With the splendid and well-proportioned rain-fall Coffee grows extremely well, especially Liberian Coffee, for which the soil and climate of that island seems well adapted. Coffee cultivation is carried on there in the gardens of the Europeans and thrives remarkably well, while the Malays state that it is grown extensively by the Dyaks of the Pontianak river for the use of that settlement, but its cultivation on an extensive or systematic scale has not been encouraged, the government not wishing to create a competition with Java. The hills on the mainland opposite Lubuhan are well adapted for its successful cultivation, since there Coffee can be grown without the trouble and expense of raising trees amongst the plantations to protect the plants from the sun, as has to be done in so many other countries. It is also systematically cultivated in the islands of Guinea, Fiji, the Friendly and Hawaiian Islands, as well as in many others of the South Pacific ocean. The Coffee plant having been in existence in Samoa and other islands of that group for some years past where it is found to flourish luxuriantly, proving the suitability of the soil and climate, but in consequence of never being scientifically treated there it has not as yet become an article of commerce from these islands. Coffee cultivation has been successfully introduced into Caledonia and other groups in the South Pacific, which, in the course of a few years, will probably form an important export, the trees raised there from seed bearing fruit in the fourth year. In Honolulu its cultivation is also progressing, large plantations having been laid out with a view to supplying the markets of Chili, Peru, Sydney and California.

The mountain ranges on the northern coast of Australia from Moreton bay to Torres straits, and other parts of that section, are recommended for Coffee cultivation, while in Queensland the plant has long been successfully grown, but it has not as yet become an article of export there, the plantations having recently suffered much from disease. It has been found to thrive well, however, in the vicinity of Brisbane, Cardwell and other northern districts, especially among the sheltered ridges of the Herbert and Endeavor rivers, these sites offering the most favorable conditions, the smaller farmers finding that Coffee pays them better than corn or potatoes, several of them having recently sold to the merchants of Brisbane some of their product as high as 20 cents per pound. This list does not by any means exhaust the possible sections in the South Pacific where Coffee cultivation has been tried with great advantage, but simply touches upon some of the chief centres adapted to the enterprise.