welve bags of cleaned coffee per
acre. At three years of age the trees produce from eight to twenty bags
of cleaned coffee per acre, and from that time they are fully matured.
The ripening season is between September and January, and there are two
principal pickings. Many of the trees are classed as wild; that is, they
are not topped, and are cultivated in an irregular manner and are poorly
cared for; but they yield 700 or 800 pounds per acre. The fruit ripens
very uniformly, and is picked easily and at slight expense.

It is calculated that in the Hawaiian group more than 250,000 acres of
good coffee land are available and about 200,000 acres more of fair
quality. Comparatively little of this possible acreage has been put to
use. According to the census of 1889, there were then 6,451 acres
devoted to coffee, having, young and old, 3,225,743 bearing trees. The
yield, in that census year, was 2,297,000 pounds, of which 2,112,650
pounds were credited to Hawaii, the small remainder coming from Maui,
Oahu, Kauai, and Molokai.

A blight in 1855-56 set back the industry, many plantations being ruined
and then given over to sugar cane. After the blight had disappeared, the
plantations were re-established, and prosperity continued for years.
Following the American occupation of the islands in 1898, came another
period of depression. With the loss of the protective tariff that had
existed, prices fell to an unremunerativte figure; and the more
profitable sugar cane was taken up again. After 1912, the increased
demand for coffee, with higher prices, led again to hopes for the future
of the industry. Planting was encouraged; and it has been demonstrated
that from lands well selected and intelligently cultivated it is
possible to have a yield of from 1,200 to 2,100 pounds per acre.
Improvements have also been made in pulping and milling facilities. Many
of the plantations are cultivated by Japanese labor.

[Illustration: COFFEE GROWING UNDER SHADE, HAMAKUA, H.I.]

Exports of coffee from Hawaii to the principal countries of the world in
1920 were 2,573,300 pounds.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. Spanish missionaries from Mexico are said to have
carried the coffee plant to the Philippine Islands in the latter part of
the eighteenth century. At first it was cultivated in the province of La
Laguna; but afterward other provinces, notably Batangas and Cavite, took
it up; and in a short time the industry was one of the most important in
the isl