PLANTATION]

As much as fifteen hundred-weight of beans per acre have been gathered
from trees in North Queensland; and for years the average was ten
hundred-weight per acre. After thirty years of cultivation, no signs of
disease have appeared. At late as 1920, the government was proposing to
make advances of fourteen cents a pound upon coffee in the parchment to
encourage the development of the industry to a point where it would be
possible for local coffee growers to capture at least the bulk of the
commonwealth's import coffee trade of 2,605,240 pounds.

Coffee grows well in most all the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and in
some of them, as in the Philippines and Hawaii, the industry in past
years, reached considerable importance.

HAWAII. Coffee has been grown in Hawaii since 1825, from plants brought
from Brazil. It has also been said that seed was brought by Vancouver,
the British navigator, on his Pacific exploration voyage, 1791-94. Not,
however, until 1845 was an official record made of the crop, which was
then 248 pounds. The first plantations, started on the low levels, near
the sea, did not do well; and it was not until the trees were planted at
elevations of from 1,000 to 3,000 feet above sea-level that better
returns were obtained.

Coffee is grown on all the islands of the group, but nowhere to any
great extent except on Hawaii, which produces ninety-five percent of the
entire crop. Next in importance, though far behind, is the island of
Oahu. On Hawaii there are four principal coffee districts, Kona,
Hamakua, Puna, and Olaa. About four-fifths of the total output of the
islands is produced in Kona. At one time there were considerable coffee
areas in Maui and Kauai, but sugar cane eventually there took the place
of coffee.

[Illustration: COFFEE IN BLOSSOM, CAPTAIN COOK COFFEE COMPANY ESTATE,
KEALAKEKUA, KONA, HAWAII]

The Kona coffee district extends for many miles along the western slope
of the island of Hawaii and around famous Kealakekua Bay. The soil is
volcanic, and even rocky; but coffee trees flourish surprisingly well
among the rocks, and are said to bear a bean of superior quality.

Coffee trees in Kona are planted principally in the open, though
sometimes they are shaded by the native _kukui_ trees. They are grown
from seed in nurseries; and the seedlings, when one year old, are
transplanted in regular lines nine feet apart. In two years a small crop
is gathered, yielding from five to t