The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1888-04-27
A COFFEE ESTATE.
METHOD OF RAISING THE POPULAR
BERRY IN GUATEMALA.

OcnHy TN 1OA EMA1As
Selecting the Ground for Plantation.
Nursery of Coffee Twics-Labor Per-
formed by Misunderstanding and Pick
ing-Ready for Market.
He who makes up his mind to create
his own coffee estate or Hfinca," must
eiso be prepared to endure from four to
six years of the hardest work. In clear
ing he must chop wood, cut away under
brush and weed his land. He must be
ready to work from sunrise to sundown.
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 asss4s aim, but that labor cannot
be depesaed upon should he turn his
back upon it. In selecting the ground it
is the best to choose well drained sur
face, so that the heavy rains of the wet
season will not prove too much for the
trees and rot them. It is not necessary
to have one general slope, but hillocks
and hillsides give as good results as any
other surface; in fact, it has been my ex-
periance that the more inaccessible the
point the better grows the tree.
After his ground is well cleared he
starts his nursery by planting coffee twigs.
which for three years must be carefully
nurtured and attended to, when they are
transplanted to their proper places, each
being eight feet distant from its immedi-
ate neighbors. At the close of the fourth
year comes the blossoms, closely followed
by the fruit. Then may the proprietor
eomplacently contemplate his growing
fortune; the beautiful "tube rose like''
white flower, showing against the dark,
lustrous green of the leaf, passes away;
then appears the green berry, ripening
gradually, first delicate pink, changing
BY degrees to dark cherry red, when it
IL ripe and ready to be gathered. The
management of afinca requires experience.
great activity, and attention to details.
AS few are better able to care for children
than mother who has raised them, few
are more competent to manage fnca
than he who has cared for it since its yery
birth.
All the labor is performed by Indians,
called in Central America mozos. It is
paid very low, and great tact is necessary
in its management. The demand fol
mozos 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
Chinaman, he will not work more than is
necessary for his own comfort. He well
knows that his class of work is paid low
and he recognizes the fact that lie cannot
acquire sufficient wealth to hire others to
work for him; that is, he is laborer for
life. Thus, having no ambition, he will
suffer nothing that may seem to him to
be hard or unjust treatment merely for
the purpose of earning a few dollars more.
The average mozo character is composed
of few virtues and many vices-he is in
termittently fond of his family; he will
make them work, take their wages, get
drunk, and repay them with brutal treat
ment; he is born gambler, will steal any
thing he can lay his hands upon, and ia
an unmitigated liar. His principal food
is the tortilla, slap jack made Of ground
corn and water, raw sugar cane, baked
plantain, cinnamon, and all the whisky
he can get. The important work on
coffee estate is to keep the ''cafetal," or
coffee tract, "clean;" that is, the ground
well cleaned Of weeds and the trees them
selves freed from moss and all parasitical
growth which thrives in the damp locali-
ties. This wedding every three months
not only adds to the richness and abund-
ance 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
ers. The value of the berry is so great
that many precautions are taken so pre-
vent the pickers from stealing it. For
this mozns of high class are employed,
designated as corporals and paid salaries;
each 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 collusion with
their subordinates.
The picker is paid in proportion to the
amount Of coffee he gathers, a good steady
hand being able to earn so centavos per
day in the Guatemala currency, or about
35 cents in American gold. Few, how
ever, earn SO much, for the mozo is g
s'devii may care" fellow; he will laugh
and talk instead of attending strictly to
stripping the tree in front Of him, and
will be satisfied if he earns 3 "reals' per
day, or 25 cents. In other walks of life
his character is the same; he will sit in
the plaza all day long under a hot sun,
chatting away with his neighbors, making
or 10 cents net profit day, selling
| native soap or corn, and he will decline
many jobs which might net him 81 q
day. There is some vanity in this, for
when he sits exhibiting his wares he
imagines himself up to the level of the
shopkeeper, while if 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
are sent to carry it to the warehouse. The
amount each individual has gathered is
measured by responsible party, the
picker receiving in return metal check,
which is redeemed at the inca office at
the close of the week, the holder receiving
in 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
the same day is put in concrete water
tanks, and Is well stirred by men with
wooden rakes and shovels in order to
| separate the gool from the poor. The
| poor OF light grains rise to the top of the
| water and float away on the surface,
through small gate, to their own tank.
| This soaking also swells the outer shells.
! It is then worked in machines called
"despulpadores, which remove the out
side heavy sheath, allowing the twins to
separate, for there are two grains in q
pod, except in the rare highest quality, in
which there is but one spherical grain.
1t is now called 'cascavilla" or "per-
gamino," each grain being clothed in a
thin shell, which when sun dried becomes
crisp and 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
| prol1nd for table use After this III ia re-