By P. J. Wester, Horticulturist in Charge of Lamao Experiment Station.
Preliminary Remarks.
While it cannot be said that the Philippines have ever grown coffee on a scale that made it an important factor in the world’s market, yet, before the advent of the coffee blight, coffee growing, from a Philippine point of view, was an industry of considerable magnitude and unquestionably of great promise. However, in the Philippines as in other parts of the eastern Tropics, the blight destroyed the coffee industry, and while in the last few years previous to the appearance of the blight there was an average annual export of about 7,000 tons of coffee, valued at ₱4,000,000, in 1913 the Philippines produced only 113,031 kilograms of Arabian coffee with an average production of 174 kilograms per hectare, the coffee imports during the same period amounting to 1,138,781 kilograms, valued at ₱816,744. The leading coffee-producing provinces of the Archipelago were, during 1913, the Mountain, 42,066 kilograms; Moro, 31,040 kilograms; Nueva Vizcaya, 5,792 kilograms; and Batangas, 5,319 kilograms. Varying quantities of coffee, less than 5,000 kilograms in any one, were produced in each of the remaining provinces, excepting Agusan, Bataan, Batanes, Ilocos Sur, Leyte, Pampanga, and Surigao, where coffee is not grown.
From a study of the coffee situation in the Eastern Hemisphere it is evident that Arabian coffee will never again become of importance in this part of the world, including of course the Philippines. However, it seems that a satisfactory substitute has been discovered in the robusta coffee. This variety, while not immune to the blight, is so resistant to the effects thereof that the disease ceases to affect the profits of the crop, or at least very slightly.
This and other reasons, which will be explained later, have resulted in the planting of robusta coffee on a very large scale in Java and adjacent Dutch possessions, and the reports relative to this variety are such as to recommend it to the serious consideration of Philippine planters. The present paper has been prepared with a view of meeting the almost daily requests that reach this Bureau for information on the subject of coffee, and particularly to give some information relative to the robusta coffee, with which practically all planters in the Archipelago are unfamiliar. It might perhaps be well to state that propagation, handling of the plants from the seed bed to the plantation, culture, etc., are the same for both Arabian and robusta coffee, except where so stated.
Arabian Coffee.
The decrease in the cultivation of coffee and the present status thereof in the Philippines show conclusively that Arabian coffee cannot be profitably grown here below an altitude of 800 meters. At and above this elevation the climate is so favorable for the growth of the plant that when kept in good condition it is capable of resisting the attack of the blight sufficiently to yield a profitable crop. Nevertheless, the planting of Arabian coffee on a large scale is not recommended even here, because the disease is everywhere present, waiting for a favorable opportunity to spread, and a drought, typhoon, or in fact anything that would devitalize the plants, would be sure to render them liable to a severe attack that might wipe out an entire plantation or district.
It is true that Arabian coffee grows below an altitude of 800 meters; in fact, coffee bushes are found at sea level, but a prospective investor should always remember that there is a very great difference between being able to merely grow coffee and to produce it in such quantities that its cultivation becomes profitable. This cannot be done at a low elevation. It is perhaps well to state here that exhaustive experiments have so far failed to yield a fungicide or spray by which the coffee blight can be satisfactorily controlled in the field.