All About Coffee

by William H. Ukers

Lands most suitable for the berry are on the Sierra de Managua, in Diriambe, San Marcos, and Jinotega, and about the base of the volcano Monbacho near Granada. Good land is also found on the island Omotepe in Lake Nicaragua, and around Boaco in the department of Chontales, where cultivation was begun in 1893.

There are also plantations in the vicinity of Esteli and Lomati in the department of Neuva Segovia. The most extensive operations are in the departments of Managua, Carazo, Matagalpa, Chontales, and Jinotega, and from those regions the annual crop has attained to such quantity that it has become the chief agricultural product of the republic. Poor and costly means of transportation on the Atlantic slope have operated to retard the development of the industry there, even though conditions of climate are not unfavorable.

Coffee Growing Under Shade, Ubban Estate, India

Abyssinia. In the absence of any conclusive evidence to the contrary, the claim that coffee was first made known to modern man by the trees on the mountains of the northeastern part of the continent of Africa may be accepted without reserve. Undoubtedly the plant grew wild all through tropical Africa; but its value as an addition to man's dietary was brought forth in Abyssinia.

Abyssinia, while it may have given coffee to the world, no longer figures as a prime factor in supplying the world, and now exports only a limited quantity. There are produced in the country two coffees known to the trade as Harari and Abyssinian, the former being by far the more important. The Harari is the fruit of cultivated arabica trees grown in the province of Harar, and mostly in the neighborhood of the city of Harar, capital of the province. The Abyssianian is the fruit of wild arabica trees that grow mainly in the provinces of Sidamo, Kaffa, and Guma.

The coffee of Harar is known to the trade as Mocha longberry or Abyssinian longberry. Most of the plantations upon which it is raised are owned by the native Hararis, Galla, and Abyssinians, although there are a few Greek, German, and French planters. The trees are planted in rows about twelve or fifteen feet apart, and comparatively little attention is given to cultivation. Crops average two a year, and sometimes even five in two years. The big yield is in December, January, and February. The average crop is about seventy pounds, and is mostly from small plots of from fifty to one hundred trees, there being no very large plantations. All the coffee is brought into the city of Harar, whence it is sent on mule-back to Dire-Daoua on the Franco-Ethiopian Railway, and from there by rail to Jibuti. Some of it is exported directly from Jibuti, and the rest is forwarded to Aden, in Arabia, for re-exporting.

Abyssinian, or wild, coffee is also known as Kaffa coffee, from one of the districts where it grows most abundantly in a state of nature. This coffee has a smaller bean and is less rich in aroma and flavor than the Harari; but the trees grow in such profusion that the possible supply, at the minimum of labor in gathering, is practically unlimited. It is said that in southwestern Abyssinia there are immense forests of it that have never been encroached upon except at the outskirts, where the natives lazily pick up the beans that have fallen to the ground. It is shelled where it is found, in the most primitive fashion, and goes out in a dirty, mixed condition.

Formerly, much of this Kaffa coffee was sent to market through Boromeda, Harar, and Dire-Daoua. An average annual crop was about 6,000 bags, or 800,000 pounds, of which something more than one-half usually went through Harar. A customs and trading station has lately been established at Gambela, on the Sobat River: and with the development of this outlet, there has been a substantial and increasing exploitation of the wild-coffee plants since 1913. Large areas of land have been cleared, with a view to cultivation, and attention is being given to improved methods of harvesting and of preparing the coffee for the market. At one time a fair amount of coffee from this region went to Adis Abeba on the backs of pack mules, a journey of thirty-five or forty days, and then was carried to Jibuti, nearly 500 miles, part of the way by rail. Now practically all of it goes to Gambela, thence by steamers to Khartoum, and by rail to the shipping-point at Port Sudan on the Red Sea.