The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1885-10-15
Rambles in Nicaragua.
Written for the journal,

|
that the pure air there would soon cure me of
the slow fever that had been hanging about me
for some weeks. A horseback ride of thirty
miles seemed quite an undertaking in my weak
| condition, but as there was no other mode of
conveyance | mounted my faithful old horse
that had carried me on many longer journey,
and equipped with poncho and leggings to pro-
tect me from showers, left Managua at 10 a. m.
A ride of ten miles of gradual ascent brought
us to the foot Of the hills that form the Sierras
| of Managua. These hills are considerably
broken, and on the steep hillsides and in the
deep ravines are planted the coffee trees. These
estates principally owned by natives, who
give but little personal attention to planting the
trees or to the improvement of their planta-
tions. The management is left to "manda-
| dor" (overseer1 who deals out the rations to
the mozos and sees that they perform their
work faithfully. Nearly all the work in this
country is done by tasks, the men earning from
! 20 to 40 cts. day, and women about 20 cts.
| Some experienced coffee pickers earn more.
| Some of these estates have good houses, and the
owners, who reside in the city, move out to
their haciendas at the beginning of the dry sea-
son and remain till the coffee is picked and
| hauled to Managua. None Of the estates have
| facilities for washing coffee, and it is partially
dried on parties. or yards, and then hauled on OK
carts to Managua where it is thoroughly dried
and hulled by steam power. These machines
have cleaning capacity of one hundred quin-
tails In twelve hours. Coffee cleaning machin-
cry was introduced into tni. country twelve
years ago. and previou. to that time coffee was
| hulled In ''trios' driven by mules or horses
and few small planter. still hull their coffee
In that way, rather than pay fifty cents quln-
| tai.
| After ride of about eight miles over steep,
crooked road which had been much improved
since was here ten years ago, we reached the
summit Of the Sierras, and had a splendid view
| of the Pacific Ocean as well as of the volcanic
mountain of Momotombo and the hills of Chon-
taIas. The latter abound in gold mines, and at
| their foot flow the placid waters of Lake Man
aqua. This point is about two thousand feet
above the sea, which is about fifteen miles dis
tant although at this elevation it seemed much
| nearer. After a short rest at ranch refresh
ed myself with dose of quinine and started
across the lano (level plain) and in few hours
turned into the avenue leading to Naughn's
| plantation, where we found good dinner
| awaiting US.
| arose the next morning much refreshed by
a good sleep in this cool climate. After walk
around the place, Mr.. Vaughn (hs brother was
absent in England) left me the sole occupant of
his ''casa' his business calling him back to Man
| aqua | found this plantation conducted very
differently from those that passed through on
| the Sierra.. The land here is level and the
trees set out regularly, about 5000 in each
lot and are protected on the northeast side by
large forest trees which they call windbreakers
Many wide avenues lead through the estate,
| which are planted with quick growing shade
! trees. No grass is allowed to grow either in
| the avenues or among the trees. The native
| planters take the plants that spring up from
| coffee that drops from the tree and crowd them
| into a small hole in the ground, not more than
one half cleared, and they seldom clean the
weeds from among the trees but once year
No pains are taken to prune the trees, and the
| result is that the limbs seldom grow nearer the
ground than two feet, and ID. per tree is an
average crop. The Messrs. Vaughn select the
| best coffee for seed, and when the plants are
one year old they are transpaned IA Inches
| apart, into Il nursery over which is fiat roof
covered with grass or palm leaves. The land
for the coffee trees is nicely cleared and large
holes are dug for the trees. The rows are
| twelve feet apart and the trees are nine feet
| apart. When the trees are TWO years old they
are taken up with as much dirt possible on
the roots, and placed carefully in the holes,
which are large enough to give the roots good
chance to grow. The trees on their plantation
are not allowed to grow more than eight feet
high. This manner of cultivation causes the
| limbs to grow out near the ground and of
course will produce more coffee. The Vaughn
Bros, seeing the advantage of huIng coffee
when it is green, have built large tank in he
ground, which is filled i'll the rainy season with
water caught on their ''partio." AS fast as
their coffee is picked it is run through the pulp
er and soaks in the watts twelve or fifteen hours,
when 1t is dried on the parto and hulled i'll Il
| trio. by this process thin skin, which ad-
heres to the kernel when it is dried in the husk,
peeIs of, and the berry thus prepared will bring
t''I SelIt ilolt III liIt iildll
coffee. The yield on this estate is about p lbs.
to a tree, and one year they tool lbs. from
one tree, but it did not produce kernel the
next year.
could say much more about coffee raising,
but fear that have already said more than you
will care to print. Sometime | will try and
give you a better article from notes jotted down
| uurinu NV ramhlpS in Nirarauua
ID. 5. SIMPSON.