1834 1,102,200 1,429,800 1835 1,299,080 1,979,850 1836 2,117,250 2,684,100 1837 1,849,650 2,217,300 1838 2,486,240 1,700,550 1839 747,450 1,255,800 1840 1,531,350 1,825,950 1841 568,920 519,750 1842 1,372,650 804,470 1843 428,800 999,300 1844 716,137 774,600

Thus the exports of the colony which in 1836 were 4,801,350 lbs. had declined in 1844 to 1,490,737; whilst in 1831 we received from British Guiana 3,576,754 lbs. of coffee, in 1850 we only received 8,472 lbs.

There are about 500 acres under cultivation with coffee in St. Lucia.  The exports, which in 1840 were 323,820 lbs., had declined, in 1844, to 58,834 lbs.

The British West Indies exported to Great Britain, in 1829 and 1850, the following quantities of coffee:—­

1829.          1850.
lbs.           lbs. 
Jamaica      18,690,654       4,156,210
Demerara      4,680,118          17,774
Berbice       2,482,898             698
Trinidad         73,667          96,376
Dominica        942,114             792
St. Lucia       303,499              35

Cuba.—­For the following valuable remarks and details of coffee culture in Cuba, I am indebted to Dr. Turnbulls “Travels in the West:”—­

At the period of the breaking out of the French revolution, the cultivation of coffee could scarcely be said to have reached the South American continent; so that till that its cultivation was in a great measure confined to Arabia and the Caribbean Archipelago.  Its extreme scarcity during the war enhanced its price so enormously, that on the first announcement of peace in 1814, the plants were multiplied to infinity, and coffee plantations were formed in every possible situation—­on the Coste Firme of South America, along the Brazilian shores of that continent, and even at some points on the coast of Southern Africa.  To show the extreme rapidity with which the cultivation has been extended, take the statistical returns of La Guayra, the chief port of the State of Venezuela, from whence the whole export of coffee in the year 1789 was not more than ten tons; and of late years from that port alone, and in spite of the internal disunions of the country, it has reached the enormous quantity of 2,500 tons.  In the Isle of Bourbon (now Reunion), and the Mauritius and Ceylon, the planters have also applied themselves to this branch of industry; it has been prosecuted successfully in our Eastern Possessions, and the French government, not content with the natural influence of the universal demand for it, have been endeavouring to stimulate the production by means of premiums and other artificial advantages.

In forming a coffee plantation, the choice of situation and soil becomes a consideration of the first importance.  A very high temperature