The Cultivation of Coffee.
The Origin of the Industry.
In the early part of the nineteenth century several Spaniards began the cultivation of coffee in a little valley away at the north end of Luzon. The trees they planted were the first coffee plants ever known on the island. A small wild animal, somewhat like a weasel, somewhat like a fox, began eating and scattering the growing berries, until in this way myriads of the little creatures had unwittingly sown coffee seeds over all the island.
Some of these original plants still bear fruit, thousands of pounds being gathered from the wild bushes. Plantation owners in that vicinity, the province of Batangas, have, indeed, assured me that the trees possessed by their grandfathers are still vigorous; while it is also a well-known fact that in many other coffee-producing colonies the plants are quite exhausted by the end of the thirtieth year.
Manila coffee is highly prized in Spain and her dependencies. They have, of course, nothing so rich in flavor as the Mocha bean of Arabia, but a kind, called caracolillo, that resembles it in taste and in shape. It has only one seed to the berry, while, on the other hand, all other varieties have two.