, 1888-04-10
A COFFEE ESTATE.
METHOD OF RAISING THE POPULAR
BERRY IN GUATEMALA.

He who makes up his mind to create
his own coffee estate or "hnca,r must
also be prepared to endure from four to
six years Of the hardest work. In clear
ing he must chop wood, cut ayFny under
brush and weed his land. He must be
ready to work from sunrise to shutdown.
Neither the damp cold Of the morning,
the heat of the noon, nor the heavy after
noon rains should deter him from his
work. 1t is true he may hire native
labor to assist him, but that labor cannot
be depended upon SHOULD he turn his
back upon it. In selecting the ground it
is the best to choose a well drained sur
fnce, so that the heavy rains of the wet
season will not prove too much for the
trees and rot them. 1t is not necessary
10 have one general slope, but hillocks
aud hillsides give ms good results as any
other surface; in fact, IL has been my ex-
perience that the more inaccessible the
point the better grows the tree.
After his ground is well cleared he
starts his nursery 10y planting coffee twiGs,
which for three years must be carefully
uurtured and attended to, when they are
-tralisplanted to their proper places, each
being eight feet distant from its immcdi-
ate neighbors. AT the close of the fourth
year comes the blossoms, closely followed
by the fruit. Then may the proprietor
complaccntly contemplate his growing
fortune; the beautiful tube rose ike
white flower, showing against the dark,
lustrous green of the leaf, passes away;
then appears the green berry, ripening
gradually, first a delicate pink, changing
by degrees to n dark cherry red, when il
is ripe and ready TO be gathered. The
management Of u finca requires experience,
great activity, and attention to details.
As few are better able to care for children
than n mother who has raised them, few
ARE more competent to manage n lnca
than he who has cared for il since its very
birth
All the labor is performed by Indians,
called in Central America mo2os. 1t is
paid very low, and great tact is necessary
in its management. The demand for
1no2us is no greater than the supply, but
the mozo laborer can find enough work to
Keep him alive almost anywhere, and as
he requires very little, even less than n
~Chinuman, he will not work more than is
necessary for his own comfort. He well
knows that his class Of work is paid low,
and lie recognizes the fact that he cannot
Mcguire sufficient wealth to hire others to
work for him; that is, he is n laborer for
life. Thus, having no ambition, he will
suffer nothing that may seem to him to
he hard or unjust treatment merely for
the purpose Of earning n few dollars more.
The average mOzo character Is composed
Of few virtues and many vices-he is in
tcrmittcutly fond of his family; he will
make them work, take their wages, get
drunk, and repay them with brutal treat
ment; he is n born gambler, will steal any
thing he can lay his hands upon, and is
an unmitigated linr. His principal food
is the @tortilla, n slap jack made of ground
corn aud water, raw sugar cane, baked
plautain, cinnamon, snd NIL the whisky
lie Gun get. The important work on a
coffee estate is TO keep the ''cafetal,n or
coffee tract, ''clean;'' that is, the ground
well cleaned of weeds and the trees them
selves freed from moss and all purasitical
growth which thrivcs in the damp lOcnli.
ties. This welding every three months
not only adds to the richness and abund-
anCc of the berry in the ensuing crop, but
the ground being clean the berries which
ripen and fall during the gathering are
easily seen and saved by the coffee pick
Crs. The value of the berry is so great
TINT many precautions are taken so pre-.
vent the piCkers from stealing it. Fec
this mCgos of a high class are employed,
designated as corpuSals and paid salaries;
cnch corporal is placed in charge of a
squad Of pickers, and It is his duty to see
that no thieving occurs and that those
under him work. But even this some
times fails, and not seldom these corpo-
rails are discovered to be IN collision with
their s~ubordiuates.
The picker is paid in proportion to the
amount of coffee he gathers, n good steady
hand being able TO earn 80 c~entavos per
day in the Guatemala currency, or about
30 cents in American gold. Few, how
over, earn so much, for the moZo is a
devil may care fellow; he will laugh
aud talk instead of attending strictly TO
stripping the tree in front of him, and
will be satisfied il he earns . ''reals" per
day, or p cents, In other walks of life
his character is the same; he will sit In
the plaza all day long under n hot sun,
rhattinE away with his neighbors, making
D or 10 cents net profit "A day, selling
native sonp or corn, and he will decline
many .ors VII oh might net him 81 a
day, There is some vanity in this, for
when he sits exhibiting his wares he
imugincs himself up TO the level of the
shopkecpeT, while il he performs manual
Labor he feels that he has gone down the
social ladder.
At the close Of day the gathered coffee
is brought by the pickers to certain desig-
mated and convenient points, where carts
Dre sent to carry it TO the warehouse. The
nmouut each individual has gathered is
measured by a responsible party, the
- HAm @fA - = - NNNNNNNa
which is redeemed at the finca Office at
the close Of the week, tile holder receiving
IA silver coin the amount due him. The
surface Of the coffee berry is like the
smooth surface Of the acorn, and when
taken from the tree is called "cereza, " or
cherry, by reason of its color. This on
Gse same day is put in ccnr3ese water
tanks, and is well stirred by men with
wooden rakes and shovels in order to
separate the good from the poor. The
poor or light grains rise to the top of the
water and float away on the surface,
through II small gate, to their own tank.
This soaking also swells the outer shells.
IL is then worked in machines called
''de~spulpudores,n which remove the out
side heavy sheath, allowing the twins to
separate, for there are two grains in n
pod, except in the rare highest quality, in
which there is but one spherical grain.
II is now called ~''cascavillar or per
gamino,' each grain being clothed in a
thin Shell, which when sun dried becomes
crisp II brittle, and is easily removed in
mortars; the coffee is then said to be in
''oro,' or gold, from its yellow color, and
IS practically ready to be toasted and
ground for table use. After this it is re-
yolved in the '~'septadores, " or hot cylin-
ders perforated with small holes, to grade
1t according to the size of the grain, and
Il is then Dlacpd i'm aacEs IN ba gbfnna1 70