Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-10-20

displayed of ripe and green fruit, buds and
blossoms, all on the same stem. But,
though perpetually Towering and develop
ing fruit, the real harvest season is from
April to November. When fully ma
tured, the berries are dark rcd, looking
precisely like a common variety of sea-
bean, They turn to dull brown after
being picked, and become almost black by
drying.
Twenty-Five pounds per annum to a
single tree is considered fair yield. The
gathered berries are dried in the sun, on
straw mats or plaster floors Then they
are separated and hulled, by being put
through mills, if one is rich enough, or by
the ancient process-still much in vogue
hereof pounding them in mortars. On
the weather. plantations the primitive
mortars (hollowed out of monstrous
cedar stump, with ponderous pestle like
pavlors rammer) has shared the fate
of the patriarchal plow, and been super
seded by the newest and best machinery.
In many places young girls are employed
to sort over the coifee-picking up the
berries, kernel by kernel, putting the
plump ones by themselves and the smaller
ones into another receptacle-and for this
labor they are paid at the rate of only 20
cents per hundred pounds Coffee sepa-
rated IN this manner commands the high
est price, and one generous New Englander
finds no lack of willing hands, since he
pays the unusually high comper sation of
80 cents pet 100 pounds. Said he, in the
quaint vernacular of the section he hailed
from, " hain't got the heart to see them
bare-legged critters bumped over all day
for less wages than that, for not one on 'em
can sort more than fifty pounds between
sun up and dark"
If one is going to starta coffee plantation
the best way Is to obtain plants about six
months old, and set them six feet apart,
in rows eight or ten feet wide. This gives
ample room between for corn, pineapples,
bananas, tobacco or whatever one wishes
to cultivate for immediate profit, besides
providing for the sure growth of the trees
IN years to come. Most planters have
found it best to raise bananas with their
coffee, because those rapidly-growipg
bushes not only afford the dense shade that
young coffee trees require, but their fall
ing shards make an excellent fertilizer.
while their roots absorb and retain the
moisture so much needed in this thirsty
soil. Besides, the bananas can be made to
yield considerable income before the
coffee begins to BEAR as by the second
year they produce great punches of fruit,
which ripen well after being gathered,
ship easily, and lalways find ready mar
ket.
Patdnos, as bananas are here called, are
the most useful of fruits, since in all
tropical countries they form staple arti-
Gle of food for the poor. Buehle, the his
torian, speaking Of the nutritive power of
The banana, says that one acre of them
will support fifty persons; while an acre
sown with wheat will support only two
persons. lie asserts that the nutritiye
powers OF this fruit are forty-four times
greater than that of the potato. and 1873
times greater than that OF wheat.
Dried platanos are great branch of
trade IN Costa Rica, and, with their black.
shrivelled skins and flavor of smoked ham
or spoiled fish, are as highly relished by
the natives rs disliked by most Americans.
There are different varieties of the fruit
and they are used in various ways-fresh.
dried, fried, boiled, etc. In less than a
year after planting, the fruit NAV some
times be gathered, and afterwards the
owner has but to cut away the old stem
and leave sucker" which will produce
another crop three months later.
1t Is historically stated that the banana
is not indigenous to the American conti-
nent, but was brought over by Spanish
friar, first to Santo Domingo. If so, its
adopted country agrees with it far better
than Its native land but there are many
proofs that it did exist in this hemisphere
long before the sixteenth century, and that
the Spaniards did no more than increase
the number of indigenous species. The
wonderful facility with which it is propa-
gated renders it great incentive to indo-
lence-for why should one "work for a
living" when nature has provided some
thing within reach of ones hand which
is all man really needs to sustain life?
1t will be remembered that coffee was
first introduced into the West Indies as
late as 17l4, and thence advanced into
" New Spain by help of the Spanish con-
querors. Since 1919, when the good Padre
Nalovedo planted the first tree in his
door-yard, in CaTtago, the cultivation of
the plant in Costa Rica has steadily in
creased. In the year 1850 the yield was
officially figured at fourteen million pounds.
and now the average crop is not less than
100000 pounds per annum.
X few miles out from San Jose. toward
the plains of Carmen, the traveller comes
upon the first of the plantations. From
that point outward they occupy the entire
valley, besides the dry beds of several an
cient lakes. Thousands of isolated planta-
tions are scattered all over the country
in the mountain valleys, and on elevated
plateaus, even as high as 1000 feet above
the sea-and their number is constantly
increasing.
The grand secret of Costa Riea's indus
try in time of peace and her past success
in war is that at least two-thirds of the
native population are landowners. Al
most every man you meet has his little
ranch, more or less well-stocked with oxen.
donkeys, pigs and poultry. Even the bare
footed Indian we see carting coffee TO the
nearest port, or carrying it in ox-hide
hampers balanced each side of mule. is
land proprietor of some pretensions, and
Is as likely to be " toting" his own coffee
as that OF another man. Whether his fee
simple estate is large or small, it makes
him good citizen and brave soldier, in
support of his home. FANNIE B. WARD.