ted to the Malay country. They secured their best crops
from lowlands where peaty soil prevailed, and eventually all the coffee
grown on the peninsula came from such regions.

_Liberica_ is mostly favored, and is grown with some success as an
inter-crop with cocoanuts and rubber. The _robusta_ variety has also
been introduced, but does not seem to do as well as the _liberica_.
Between 2,300 and 2,600 acres, according to recent returns, have been
under coffee as a catch-crop with cocoanuts, out of a total of 40,000
acres in cocoanut estates. One planter has been reported as making quite
a success with this method of inter-cropping for coffee, but it is not
generally approved.

There has been a general decline in acreage, product, and exports since
the closing years of the nineteenth century, until now the industry is
regarded as practically at a stand-still and likely so to remain as long
as rubber shall continue to hold the commercially high position to which
it has attained. Unsatisfactory prices realized for the crop, poor
growth of the trees in some localities, and the gradual weakening of the
trees under rubber as they mature, are offered as the principal
explanations of this decrease in acreage. Nearly all the Malay crop in
recent years has been grown in Selangor, though Negri Sembilan, Pahang,
and Perak continue as factors in the trade.

[Illustration: COFFEE TREES OF THE BOURBON VARIETY, FRENCH INDO-CHINA]

AUSTRALIA. Although Australia is a prospective coffee-growing country of
large natural possibilities, the _Australian Year Book_ for 1921 states
that Queensland is the one state in which experiments have been tried,
and that in 1919-20 there were only twenty-four acres under cultivation.
Queensland soils are of volcanic origin, exceptionally rich, and
support trees that are vigorous and prolific with a bean of fine
quality. The _arabica_ is chiefly cultivated, and the trees can be
successfully grown on the plains at sea-level as well as up to a height
of 1,500 or 2,000 feet. The trees mature earlier than in some other
countries. Planted in January, they frequently blossom in December of
the next year, or a month later, and yield a small crop in July or
August; that is, in about two years and a half from the time of
planting. The bean closely resembles the choice Blue Mountain coffee of
Jamaica. For coffee cultivation the labor cost is almost prohibitive.

[Illustration: PICKING COFFEE ON A NORTH QUEENSLAND