advance as fast as sugar cultivation
is receding, and command a good remunerative price. Moreover, as
already explained, not being distinctly a season crop as sugar is,
nor requiring expensive machinery to produce it, its cultivation is
the most recommendable to American colonists.

_Coffee_ _(Coffea arabica)_ planting was commenced in the Colony
early in the last century. Up to 1889 plantation-owners in the
Province of Batangas assured me that the trees possessed by their
grandfathers were still flourishing, whilst it is well known
that in many coffee-producing colonies the tree bears profitably
only up to the twenty-fifth year, and at the thirtieth year it is
quite exhausted. Unless something be done to revive this branch of
agriculture it seems as if coffee would soon cease to be an article
of export from these Islands. In the year 1891 the crops in Luzon
began to fall off very considerably, in a small measure due to the
trees having lost their vigour, but chiefly owing to the ravages
of a worm in the stems. In 1892-93 the best and oldest-established
plantations were almost annihilated. Nothing could be done to stop
the scourge, and several of the wealthiest coffee-owners around Lipa,
personally known to me, ploughed up their land and started sugar-cane
growing in place of coffee. In 1883 7,451 tons of coffee were shipped,
whilst in 1903 the total export did not reach four tons.

The best Philippine Coffee comes from the Provinces of Batangas,
La Laguna and Cavite (Luzon Is.), and includes a large proportion of
_caracolillo_, which is the nearest shape to the Mocha bean and the
most esteemed. The temperate mountain regions of Benguet, Bontoc,
and Lepanto (N.W. Luzon) also yield good coffee.

The most inferior Philippine coffee is produced in Mindanao Island,
and is sent up to Manila sometimes containing a quantity of rotten
beans. It consequently always fetches a lower price than Manila (i.e.,
Luzon) coffee, which is highly prized in the market.

MANILA QUOTATIONS FOR THE TWO QUALITIES

Average Prices throughout the Years

Per Picul of 133 1/3 Eng. lbs.

Manila (Luzon) Coffee
1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1890 1891
P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P.cts.

10.25 12.00 12.68 12.00 12.17 26.14 21.47 31.00 30.50

Mindanao Coffee
1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1890 1891
P.cts. P.cts. P.cts. P