Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-10-20
IN COSTA RIGA
NEW ENGLAND HOMES IN SPANISH
AMERICA.
Yankees, Europeans and Spaniards
Enj " Together the Delights
Of Tropical Farming.
Especial Correspondence of the REcoRp-U UNION
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica,
"a Il Z

1hOuSb thS slIdliSS% WlllllH litSSS SdtSS
sees much that seens absurd and semi
civilized IN contrast to northern institu-
tions, he IS sure to become so much attached
to the hospitable and kindly people-so
deeply IN love with the dolce far aiesste of
life here and the mountain scenery clothed
in eternal sumner that to tear himself
away becomes g real grief, and the longer
he remains the more difficult the task.
l have met q number Of American fami-
lies, now living in Costa Rica, who declare
they would not exchange their homes here
for the best the United States can afford.
And, indeed, with proper surroundings
(tEat is, with the loved ones at HANDY, one
may live an ideal life in Hispano-America,
environed by snow-capped peaks and
picturesque beauty, under skies as blue as
those OF "Naples, the Beautiful" with
health, plenty and contentment among the
other products of ones farm in the tropics.
If Paradise is ultimately to be located
on this terrestrial sphere, as many suppose,
it will surely occupy a position halfway
up some tropic mountain-in the terra
teanplddd of Central CT South America, or
in the Himalyas or West Indies-where
altitude little higher or lower confers all
those favors which in other countries re-
suit only from complete change of loea-
ton. 1t was the beauty of this newly-dis-
covered land, as much as the cry of E2
Dorado, that caused the crusaders of Cortez
and Cordova to forget the sea-washed
ramparts of Cadiz and the grape-laden
valleys of Guadalete, the saffron-sprinkled
sierras of old CASTLE and all the pictorial
pride of Spain-even their richly-ara-
besqued homesteads and the Moorish
beauties and luxurious loye-making of An
dalusia.
And in these days men of different
mold are seduced from ancestral homes.
from the kinsfolk they love and laws they
reverence, to reside permanently in this
remote corner of the earth, whose lowell
ness reconciles them to the isolation every
foreigner must feel where another language
is spoken and other modes of thought pre-
vail.
Among the happy exiIes whom [ have
visited here is an American physician.
formerly from Philadelphia, who owns one
of the finest houses in Costa Rica's capi-
tai, but who prefers to live upon his cocoa
plantation, a few miles distant. Though
he and his speak of the City of Brotherlv
Love with tenderness, nothing could in
duce them TO return there as permanent
residents. | have also been delightfully."-
entertained on the best food and vintage OF
the Rhine in the casas of several Germans
who long ago became citizens Of COSTA
Rica, and are mostly engaged in the manu-
facture of cotton cloth, saddles and SOM
breros. And many times have | shared
the hospitality of genuine English homes
transplanted to this country, where all the
gayety and good cheer of Merrie England
hourishes to perfection amid gardens in
perennial bloom.
Not long ago | accepted an invitation
to spend fortnight at the plantation of n
New Englander who resides midway be-
tween Matina and San Jose. This worthy
gentleman, with his wife and three small
children, came to Costa Rica about twelve
years ago, after having failed in business
In the over-crowded North. Scraping to-
gether the remnant of his fortune, he had.
when arrived here, barely money enough
to clear the land for which he owed the
Government, and though the first six
months was hard squeezing to maintain
his family; he succeeded beyond his Wild
est hopes. To-day he is not only free from
debt and owns home beautiful enough to
satisfy the most aesthetic, but has hand
some surplus well invested and sure
income growing up all around him.
The sincere goodwill of the Costa Rican
Government-or its wisdom in wishing to
encourage immigration-is proved by the
liberal inducements held out to those who
will come and make homes here. In order
to purchase public lands in this republic it
Is not necessary to possess much ready
money, for buyer may become debtor
to the National Treasury, and pay at his
own convenience. These lands, which
vary IN value according to their distance
from the centers of population, are sold at
public auction. For instance, two acres
near San Jose will probably bring about
$3.50, while beyond the mountains, in those
vast forests to the north and south. 100
acres of really better land may be pur-
chased for $50. The natives estimate the
cost of clearing and preparing land for
crops at about $40 per acre; but no doubt
an energetic Yankee farmer would accom-
plish 1t for half that sum. Having paid to
the Government certain amount of pur-
chase money Tin most cases the merest
trife), he takes possession of the land and
retains it, long as grass grows and water
runs" paving on the balance yearly in
terest of four cent OF course, as long as
the debt remains unpaid, he has no deed
to the estate, which he may bequeath or
otherwise dispose of; but he has fair
chance of settling the score, and mean
while the yearly interest amounts to verv
small rent
OF all tropical countries, Costa Rica's
soil and climate is most inviting to the
immigrant, and best adapted to Americans
aud Europeans, because it is about the
only one in which native productions can
be raised with profit and impunity by free
white labor. To be sure, along the low
lands Of both the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts the climate is absolutely fatal; but
there are plenty of mountain valleys
farther inland, from 5000 to 5000 feet
above the level of the sea, where no at
mosphere can be more heaithful and no
soil more fertile. In the central portion
of the country, in the neigh bborhood of the
capital, the thermometer ranges between
65' and 75o from year to year. Not only
tropical fruits are grown in the Acadian
valleys, but American corn, grain and
vegetables, pumpkins, peaches, apples, etc,
English wheat and clover, ana potatoes
that would water the mouth of an Emerald
Islander
Senor Astaburiaga, who is undoubted
authority, says that the yet unappropriated
public lands in Northern Costa Rica-not
TO mention those in the south and west
amount to more than million acres. The
valley of Orosi alone has ample room for
100000 farmers, and is capable of yielding
two full crops of wheat and three crops of
corn in year. In fact, all over the
country, from Lake Nicaragua to the
Panamian frontier, are valleys where whole
nations, such as Portugal and Holland,
could find ample room and the best of
living.
But to return 10 our New England cof-
fee-planter. His is a typical cofaal, about
1000 feet above sea level, in a region
which so harmoniously blends the best of
soil and climate, that he raises the produc-
tions of both temperate and torrid zones
hedging his corn fields with giant "cen-
iury' plants, his wheat with cocoa palms
olives pumpkins and pomegranates grow
ing side by side with potatoes and pine
apples, and cultivating oranges and apples
in the same orchard