Summary.
Arabian coffee cannot be successfully grown in the Philippines below an altitude of 800 meters, and even at this elevation, due to its susceptibility to the coffee blight, extensive planting of Arabian coffee cannot be recommended.
Success with Arabian coffee is obtainable only by keeping the plantations clean of weeds and the plants in the best possible condition.
For the rehabilitation of the Philippine coffee industry robusta coffee appears more promising at present than any other kind.
The advantages of robusta coffee are that it thrives under more varied conditions than Arabian coffee, that it is an earlier and a more prolific bearer and that it is resistant to the blight.
Blight resistance in robusta coffee does not mean that it is immune, but that notwithstanding the presence of the blight it grows well and produces abundant crops.
Robusta coffee is by some authorities regarded as inferior in quality to Arabian coffee. Nevertheless, considering the optimism with which robusta coffee is regarded by conservative European experts in tropical crops, coupled with the results obtained in Java, it is confidently believed that robusta coffee is worthy of extended planting in the Philippines.
From the Dutch department of agriculture in Java the Bureau of Agriculture has imported seed of the best robusta coffee available for distribution, as well as a considerable quantity of seed of the ordinary robusta cultivated in that island. All readers who are interested in planting robusta coffee are cordially invited to communicate with the Bureau of Agriculture.
[1] All statistics, and much of the information that applies specifically to robusta coffee have been adapted from “Robusta and Some Allied Coffee Species” by Dr. C. J. J. Van Hall, of the department of agriculture, Buitenzorg, Java, published in the Agr. Bul. of the F. M. S., Vol. I: No. 7, 1913, and from a review of a series of articles on robusta coffee by Dr. E. Wildeman, in the Monthly Bul. of Agr. Intelligence, etc., Vol. IV: No. 4, 1913.