, 1888-06-10

1890 $1,000
reason exists why, as OURS, competing
with no present or possible future de-
velopment of our own, and adding meal
culable wealth and resource to our nation,
it could not become the coffee garden of
the globe. Spain, exercising the most
barbarous and brutal governmental powers
known this side of the dark ages, a curse
and insult to nineteenth century c~iviliza-
ton, threateningly sits at our very doors,
robbing the properties, destroying the am
billions and efforts and sucking the very
life blood, from a brave and kindly peo-
pie, half a century ago ours by every val
orous effort and holy aspiration that can
stir the souls of men. And we, a nation
Of emasculated pretensionists, higgle-
Eaggling over internal dead issues of a
wraithful past, and pothering over senti-
mental issues OF q century to come,
cowardly beyond human expression, per-
NIT the danger, loss and shame.
According to De Tour the original stock
of all West India coffee was a coffee tree
presented by the magistrates of Amster-
dam to Louis XIV, in l7I5, and thence
by the French Haytians. Its intro
duction here, was from Hayti. It's chief
stimulus came through hundreds of rich
SAhkCN NbO NOAolhLL III
Hayti and San Domingo, and probably
coffee culture reached its greatest pros
perity in Cuba during the first quarter of
this, century, when its annual production
reached nearly an hundred million pounds.
Then it was that the planters of these
noble valley were richer than princes, fire.
quently owned thousands of slaves each,
lived in a lavish luxuriance the lingering
legends of which are unreliable from their
apparent absurdity in the practical
thought of to-day, and old Trinidad,
down there In the somnolence by the sea,
was then Paris ~chiquito,'' or little
Paris of the Antilles, whose wealth,
splendor and profligacy will forever re.
main unequalled in the New World.
But by 1925 the enormous profits on
sugar were a temptation to neglect coffee,
and by 1850 the annual product of Cuba
barely reached fifteen million pounds.
Then came the Cuban revolution OF '69,
and for eight terrible years the struggle
for freedom from Spanish rule, whose
greaaest sacrifices and most desperate ven
lures were made among the valorous Gu
bans OF this region, was further harm to
coffee culture, and since the patched up
peace of Zanjon the magnificent coffee
lands of Cuba have lain practically idle
beneath the robberies of the Spanish off
Gals and the desperate encrvation of
planters who see no hope but in the
strong succor Of the United States gov
eminent, and hope against hope in the
face of our own Indifference and compass
s~ionless silence. Within the past few
years, however, there has been an appre-
cable renewal of efforts IN this direction.
The continued low prices oil sugar, and
losses and embarrassments Of sugar plant
ers, have effected a change of industries,
many owners of coffee lands hoping for
some sort Of relief from the United
States, or any foreign power hat would
assure respectable government, and the
investment Of many millions of American
capital in coffee tincas or properties. with
the same hope of American recognition
of American interests, have put this in
dustry of s%tupendous practical posslbili-
ties into what may be described as a ten
tatively expectant state. If we should
buy or take Cuba to-day, within five years
time this whole southern Cuban slope
would become a bed of snow white coffee
bloom, and the It's, 900 tons of coffee an
nually consumed by the citizens of the
United States would be delivered to these
consumers by our own citizens, who would
then furnish 1t at a cost of but a trifle more
than one-half that now paid-or, say a
reduction OF at least ten cents per pound.
This would effect an annual saving to the
whole people Of between $50, 900, 900 and
$40, 000, 900. Thus only three years
equal saving on this one item, not taking
into account the vast increase of national
wealth in the acquisition of many equally
valuable Cuban resources, would buy
Cuba outright. Half the sum of one
years savings would take it. Suppose a
portion of that mighty and troublesome
surplus at Washington which, as esti-
mated by Secretary Fairchild in Deem
Der last will reach $40, 900, 900 at the
end Of this fiscal year" be applied to
making Cuba one Of our United States?
Coffee culture is not difficult. 1t is
very profitable. And a coffee plantation
in bloom is the most beautiful spot on
earth. If a planter decides to begin at
the beginning and create his own '%'inca"
or coffee plantation, there is first the Sc
lection of ground, This is not difficult,
for coffee thrives anywhere in q proper
climate and fairly well drained soil. A
level surface is not necessary, though
usually chosen. Hillside reaches and
even hillocks auswe admirably, The Sc
lection of seed is simply a matter of
cnOlce. SeedlnR IS carried on alter this
fashion. An especially rich bit of ground
is chosen where the semillero or seed-bed
is made. In this, in drills not over one
inch deep and about ten inches apart, the
coffee beans, stripped of their outer husk,
but retaining the second or inner shells,
are gently laid and barely covered with
loose soil. Some six months are required
for termination, sprouting and sufficient
progress Of the plant to render trans
planting successful. Then the young
shoots are placed in the almaciga or
nursery ground from ten to twelve months
from seeding. Here they remain under
a sufficient amount of cultivation to keep
the soil loose and mellow and prevent
weeds from collecting for about two years.
Thew have been set eighteen inches apart
and fully 10 per cent more in number
than will be required have been allowed
to grow, so that the most vigorous plants
may be selected for permanent use.
When the latter stage is reached the
entire plantation, where it is sufficiently
level to permit, is laid out in rectangular
plats of about 200 varas or 600 feet long
and half that width with caminos mr.