Java.—In Java, coffee is a government monopoly, and the planters bring their coffee to a central government depôt for sale at a fixed price. The island exports about 1,250,000 cwts. of coffee annually. Java coffee has lost much of its former repute from being largely saturated with moisture, artificially to the extent of 14 per cent.; this increases the weight, but must injure the quality in transport.

At the Paris Exhibition of 1855, the Netherlands Commercial Association contributed a very varied collection of two dozen varieties of coffees from the Dutch government possessions in Java, under the following classification: Brown, clear brown, deep yellow, yellow, yellowish, white, whitish, pale of Havana kind, blue, fine green, handsome green, green, greenish, mottled green, deep green West India kind, green West India kind, pale green West India kind, dark Demerara kind, green Demerara kind, deep grey, triage, common black, greenish Menado, and white Padang. The Netherlands Society sell about 1,000,000 bags or bales of coffee annually.

The following were the exports of coffee from Java in 1862:

piculs.
To Holland on private account128,047
To other countries165,116
By the Netherlands Trading Company877,241
1,170,404

The position of the coffee trade of Java is shown in the figures annexed, for five years:

EXPORT AND VALUE OF COFFEE.
tons. value.
1858 66,575 £2,614,505
1859 59,769 2,565,137
1860 54,638 2,486,115
1861 61,783 2,850,518
1862 63,286 3,465,747

Three kinds of Java coffee are commonly brought to Europe—Jacatra (usually sold as Java), Cheribou, and Samarang. The first is the best, the second is generally a little lighter colour and of somewhat inferior quality, and the third has yellowish brown, or green, flattened beans. What is generally sold in the Dutch markets as Samarang is, however, simply a kind of “triage,” with black beans of a coarse flavour.

Siam.—On the hilly districts of the east coast of the Gulf of Siam the cultivation of coffee is carried on to a limited extent, and some very fine samples of Siam coffee were shown at the International Exhibition of 1862, sent me by Messrs. Markwold and Co., and by Sir Robert Schomburgk, the British Consul-General.

Sumatra is one of the worst kinds of coffee received from the Eastern Archipelago. The beans are large, dark yellow or brown, and occasionally even black, and the flavour varies considerably. The production in Sumatra averages about 5 to 6,000,000 lbs., but has often been double that amount.

Celebes.—With the exception of Menado, which has large beans of a pale greenish or yellow colour, Celebes coffee is greatly inferior to Java, and it is questionable whether the colour when brought to market is not given by artificial means. The production is about 1,000,000 lbs.