Decameter (10 meters) equals 393.7 inches. Hectometer (100 meters) equals 328 feet 1 inch. Kilometer (1,000 meters) equals 0.62137 mile (3,280 feet 10 inches). Myriameter (10,000 meters) equals 6.2137 miles. Metric surface measures. Centare (1 square meter) equals 1,550 square inches. THE BUREAU OF FOREIGN COMMERCE. From and after July 1, 1897, the Bureau of Statistics, Department of State, will be known as the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, in accordance with the following order of the Secretary of State: DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, July 1, 1897. Under the authority conferred upon me by chapter 268, United States Statutes at Large, Fifty-fourth Congress, second session, under the heading "Publication of Diplomatic, Consular, and other commercial reports," the name of the Bureau of Statistics of this Department is hereby changed to the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, and the title of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics shall hereafter be Chief of the Bureau of Foreign Commerce. JOHN SHERMAN, The reasons for the change are set forth in the following eport from the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics to the Secretary of State: DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, June 30, 1897. Honorable JOHN SHERMAN, Secretary of State. SIR: I have the honor to call your attention to the clause in the diplomatic and consular appropriation bill for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898, approved February 20, 1897, which provides for the publication of diplomatic, consular, and other commercial reports. (See page 590, United States Statutes at Large, Fifty-fourth Congress, second session.) The paragraph reads as follows: Preparation, printing, publication, and distribution, by the Department of State, of the diplomatic, consular, and other commercial reports, twenty-five thousand dollars; and of this sum the Secretary of State is authorized to use not exceeding three thousand one hundred and twenty dollars for services of employees in the Bureau of Statistics, Department of State, in the work of compiling and distributing such reports, and not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars in the purchase of such books, maps, and periodicals as may be necessary to the editing of diplomatic, consular, and other commercial reports: Provided, That all terms of measure, weight, and money shall be reduced to, and expressed in, terms of the measure, weight, and coin of the United States, as well as in the foreign terms; that each issue of consular reports shall not exceed seven thousand copies: And provided further, That the Secretary of State be, and he is hereby, authorized to change the name of the Bureau of Statistics to the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, and that the foregoing provision shall apply with the same force and effect to the Bureau of Foreign Commerce as to the Bureau of Statistics. You will perceive that the Secretary of State is authorized by the foregoing to change the name of the Bureau of Statistics of this Department to the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, and that the provision for the maintenance of the Bureau of Statistics is made to apply with the same force and effect to the Bureau of Foreign Commerce. As the appropriation becomes available on the 1st of July, I respectfully ask authority from you to carry the legislation specified into effect. The reasons for making the change, as stated to Congress and approved by that body, are: (1) The confusion arising from the fact that there are three bureaus of statistics in the Executive Departments, viz: Bureau of Statistics, Department of State; Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department; Division of Statistics, Department of Agriculture. Shortly after taking charge of this Bureau, I became impressed with the fact that the general public was unable to discriminate between the various bureaus of the same name, and that unnecessary labor and delay resulted. (2) The name Bureau of Statistics does not properly denote the functions of this Bureau, which is exclusively commercial in its character, its work being that of collecting, compiling, and distributing the commercial reports of our diplomatic and consular officers. There is a wide range of statistics with which the Bureau has nothing to do, and its designation as a Bureau of Statistics is, therefore, misleading. The use of the words Bureau of Foreign Commerce, on the other hand, besides correctly indicating the character of the work, is likely, in my judgment, to impress upon the public mind the importance of the commercial functions of this Department. In view of these considerations, I submit the draft of an order for your signature. Respectfully yours, FREDERIC EMORY, Chief, Bureau of Statistics. VARIETIES OF COFFEE AND COFFEE TREES. Of the twenty-two varieties of coffee plants (a rubiaceous plant whose original habitat was Abyssinia), seven belong to Asia, eleven to the west coast of Africa, two in Central and East Africa, and two in Mauritius. Among the different varieties, the following may be enumerated: Arabian, Mocha, Myrtle, Aden and Bastard, Moorish; Marrou, of Réunion; Monrovian, coffee of Gaboon; Saurine, yellow coffee (café amarello), red coffee (café vermelho), and the common coffee of Mexico and Central and South America. All these varieties are variously subdivided, taking their names from the districts. where they are produced or from ports whence they are shipped. For example, Brazil coffees are Rio, Santos, Bahia, Ceara, etc. The ordinary coffee shrub is an evergreen plant that grows to a height of about 20 feet, with oblong, ovate leaves. The fruit is a fleshy berry, having the appearance and size of a small cherry. Each fruit contains two seeds, embedded in a yellowish pulp, the seeds being inclosed in a thin membranous endocarp. REGIONS SUITABLE TO COFFEE CULTURE. The regions best adapted to the cultivation of coffee are wellwatered mountain slopes, at an elevation of from 1,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level, in latitudes lying between 15° north and 15° south, although it is cultivated with success from 25° north to 30° south of the Equator, where the temperature does not fall below 55° F. Frost No. 215 I. 481 is a deadly enemy of the plant, and excessive heat hinders its normal growth. The low, hot lands of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea. region-which produces the best cocoa in the world-and the South. Atlantic are not adapted to its culture, the coffee lands in all these regions being found on the highlands that rise from the sea. On the American continent, coffee is produced all the way from Paraguay to Mexico; the Argentine Republic, Chile, the United States, and Canada being either too far north or south for its growth. The shape, size, and color of the seeds are the points that determine the commercial value of coffee. The shape depends upon the particular part of the plant upon which the seed grows, the size upon the nature of the locality of the growth, and the color on the degree of maturity of the fruit at the period of gathering the crop. Brazil is the great coffee country of the world, being credited with 66 per cent of the total product. Nearly all the twenty States that form this vast mesopotamia extending from the Amazon to the River Plate produce coffee; but the true coffee zone is confined to the States of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Espirito Santo, and Minas Geraes, São Paulo being the banner coffee State. This coffee finds its outlet at the ports of Santos, Rio de Janeiro, and Victoria. COFFEE IN SÃO PAULO. A few words as to the cultivation, harvesting, preparation, grading, marketing, and exporting of coffee from the State of São Paulo. Plantations.-Plantations are usually made on hillsides—the plant growing even in crevices of rocks-plants being placed at intervals. of 10 or 15 feet. Hillsides are preferred, because less subject than low lands to frost. At the age of four years, the tree begins to bear; it reaches its best at ten years, but continues to bear up to twenty and even thirty and forty years. The life of a plantation properly cared for is, however, about thirty years. Frosts and droughts damage crops here; insects very little. Harvesting the crop.-The first flowering appears in September, and the berry ripens in April or May, when the gathering of the crop begins. The berries are stripped by hand. The berry contains two grains, with the flattened sides toward each other, each covered with an inner membrane called pergaminho, and a thicker outer coat called casquimho, and the outside tough rind or shell, casco. remove these coverings, the berry is passed through the despolpadar, after having been washed in shallow cisterns. It is then driedeither spread out on a cement-covered pavement, called terreiro, in the sun, which is the old way, requiring about two months, or by the modern method of steam, which is used on the large fazendas, or plantations. After drying, the coffee, still inclosed in the inner |