The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1889-05-23
COFFEE CULTURE.
How the Worlds Favorlte Berry Is
Borne. Its Life.

OIL O8racdS, bd 0ulrd. ~ 10 onc vi VIC
many owned by the virtual and several
times constitutional ruler of Venezuela,
Guzman Blanco, who is said to be
twenty millionaire at least. The planta-
ton is an extensive and thrifty one, ad-
mirably situated for the production of
good coffee, and well conducted by its
overseer, middle.aged man having the
appearance OF mixed Spanish and In.
dian blood. The cottage to which we
were welcomed cordially by the master
is situated at the lower edge of the plan.
tation, built neatly Of poles, clay, plaster
and tile, shaded by fruit trees, and near
it is little patch Of banana plants and
a pool bordered with plants Of the lily
family, with leaves two feet or more in
width. Below, across the road, are
the building and inclosure where the
coffee is prepared for market, and
large cistern for the storage Of water
when necessary to use in "pulping" the
coffee.
When we rested little after our hard
ride we were provided with cigarettes,
which are in use by most people in the
tropics, and at a call OF "Carita trae
fuego!" (Pet, bring some fire y the
pretty little brown daughter of our host
came in smiling, with small brazier in
her hand containing lighted charcoal,
which we used instead of matches. Al
ter a "Gracias, nineta !" Thanks, little
girl y we sat smoking and asking ques.
tions in the shade, and gazing up the
mountain side through long vistas of
well grown trees, regularly planted, be-
meath which in as regular rows at much
less distances apart werethe coffee plants,
forming under the greater forest, a min.
iature one with shining green leaves,
abundant white flowers, and lending to
the air an odor as agreeable as that of
we'll made coffee itself, though very
different.
The coffee plant, indigenous to Arabia
and Abyssinia, grows to the height OF
about twenty feet. Each berry contains
two seeds, enveloped in. thin mem.
brane, and the freeing of the grains is a
big part of preparing coffee for the
market.
Coffee thrives best upon we'll watered
and fertile mountain slopes, between
latitudes 15 degs. north and south OF
the equator, and sometimes as in Amer.
lea, as far as 25 degs. north and 80 degs.
south, where the temperature does not
fall below 55 degs. Fahrenheit. AL
though the plants may bear blossoms at
any season, unless the conditions are
favorable there is no fruit, and the con-
ditions upon the American continent
make November the principal harvest
month, especially in Brazil, whence
most of our coffee comes.
The plants are set out ten to fifteen
feet apart, in regular rows, being trans.
planted from the nursery or from pots,
where they are grown in the shade until
they are two years old, or in the latter
case year old, or in many cases root
shoots of mature plants are used. In
Venezuela and Columbia rapidly grow.
ing trees with wide branching tops are
set in rows sufficiently wide so that the
ground is entirely shaded and the coffee
plants protected from the sun but in
Brazil and Africa this protection is not
usually provided. The plants come into
light bearing in three to four years, and
in the meantime crops of corn and man.
dioca are cultivated between them, which
helps keep the ground clean, and often
gives returns which cover the cost oi
establishing the plantation. Indeed,
coffee planters often give the use OF the
ground and the coffee gathered, includ.
ing the fourth year, to laborers for pre-.
pairing the ground and caring for the
trees during that period, as fair remu.
neration. They thus obtain plantation
in thrifty and productive condition,
without cost, which will last thirty
years.
Both young plants in the vivero or
nursery, and older ones in the fields need
plenty of moisture at their roots, and the
latter require training SO that there may
be sufficient room for the circulation OF
air and for light between their branches
and trunks.
In the gathering season the berries
are picked into shallow baskets, rapidly
and steadily from morning till night, the
tropical day extending from six to six,
sunrise to sunset, and the work perhaps
q little longer. In Brazil, where slavery
is to cease in 1892, the slaves are now
worked seventeen hours out of the
twenty-fourupon some coffee plantations.
Each person gathers berries enough in
day 70 yield from thirty to fifty pounds
Of dry coffee. There Is considerable diff.
erence In the size Of berries and the
yield of plants according to location and
excellence of culture. In South Amer-