Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-03-27
VENEZUELA PRODUCTS.
Wealth in Coffee and Cocoa.
Story of HOw Two Pop
ular Berries Are Planted. Gather
ed, and Sent to Market-The
Stuff the Americans Buy
and Consume.

The good people of Venezuela are just
row feeling very rich, for the last two years
have been the most prosperous in the en-
tire history of the country. Not only has
the coffee crop been unprecedented in
quantity but the price has been higher
than for many years, owing to the
drought and epidemics in Brazil. They
say 1T is an i'll wind that blows nobody
good. and Venezuela and other coffee
growing countries have prospered as
Brazil has suffered The emancipation
of the slaves in Brazil also has demon
allied labor, and the planters down there
are finding, as those of our own country
did after the war, that free negro will
not work like a slave, and that it costs
more to keep him as well as to pay him
wages. The emancipation has been a
good thing for countries like Venezuela,
where labor has been free since 1854, but
it will take Brazil good while to re-
cover from it.
COFFEE PLANTATIONS COME HIGH.
One cannot buy coffee plantations in
Venezuela except for more than their full
value, for they have gradually passed into
the possession of men of means. who re-
garGs them as one of the safest and most
profitable OF Investments A good PLAN
tatlon yielding 1000 quintals of coffee
they don't go by acres, but by the number
OF trees and their average yield, and a
qulntal is 125 pounds--is worth, at the
lowest estimate. $4,000, and could not be
bought anywhere near Caracas for much
less than that. But it would pay net
income of $4,000 a year at present prices,
and from $4,000 to $4,000 at ordinary
prices. Coffee has sold in years back as low
as $3.50 hundred. Now it is worth $21 so
IN the Carcas market. But even at the
lowest price such a plantation would pay a
revenue ofS5, 900 a year or 10 per cent net
upon the value 1have named.
The situation of plantation also gov
ems its value considerably. The health
fulness and temperature of the location, its
convenience to market; the amount of water
avallments and the character of the i'm
provements add to or detract from the
worth OF the property, but the planter sell
dom lives upon his quinta for more than a
few months In the year, but must keep up
an establishment in the city, where his
wife can have social enjoyments and his
children an opportunity of attending
school. There are some plantations in the
Immediate neighborhood of Caracas which
would not be sold for twice the sum have
named, and the income they furnish their
owners justi6es the value at which they are
held. Venezuela exports 100, 200 900
pounds of coffee, and at profit this year
of from Z to 9 cents pound, which shows
the magnitude of the business and the
wealth it is bringing into the country.
PAI.MED OFF AS A GENUINE MOCHA.
About one-half of this product now goes
to the United States, where it is sold for
Mocha mostly. 1t comes so near Mocha in
flavor and appearance, that none
but an expert can detect
the difference, and has almost entirely
driven the genuine berry out of the market.
Three or four years ago there was plague
in Arabia, where the Mocha coffee is
grown, and shipments were almost
entirely stopped. Then the merchants
were obliged to find substitute, and the
Venezuela berry was so popular that it has
kept his place. Ten years ago there were
not hundred bags of Caracas coffee sold
in the United States annually, but now the
export according to the authority of Mr..
Boulton, the largest dealer and the owner
of the steamship line, reaches nearly So
100000 pounds. Ten years ago the house
of Boulton was alone in the trade. Now
there are dozen houses in the United
States and several in Canada that make it
their entire business.
HOW COFFEE is GROWN.
The product is not increasing in Vene-
zuela, and that keeps up the price. Few
new plantations are being started At
former prices, and when the government
was unsettled, it did not pay to invest
money in starting plantations, for it takes
about seven years to bring the trees to the
producing age. First the ground is clear
ed and burned over two or three times to
get rid of the brush; then it is plowed and
laid off into squares. Then shade trees
must be planted to shelter the coffee bush
es from the sun. Every plantation is
shaded. Banana trees are put out origin
ally to protect the young plants, for they
shoot up rapidly and have luxurious foil
age, but for permanent shade a large,
quick-growing tree called the bucuara,
which resembles the sycamore, is used. The
coffee seed is planted in a nursery and the
seedlings are transplanted to the
field when they are about a foot high.
They must be kept free from weeds and
have good deal of water. A coffee plan
tation without irrigating facilities is
worthless, but after the bushes are fully
grown they are not so much trouble or ex-
pense to care for.
The blossoms, which are as beautiful
as those of the orange flower, begin to APP
pear about the third year, and the fifth a
small crop may be expected, but the trees
do not mature until the seventh year and
full crop will not be gathered before the
eighth A well-shaded estate will last six
ty or seventy-fve years and bear fruit regu-
larly There is one plantation just outside
the city of Caracas which was planted in
1910, and another that was planted at the
end of the last century. Both of them are
producing luxuriously. Coffee is tough
crop, is never affected by bugs or worms
or grasshoppers, although the trees may
perish from thirst Or the fruit may rust
from too much rain.
PREPARING COFFEE FOR MARKET.
There are several kinds of coffee. The
"Caracus washed is the best, and its SUI
periority is due to the fact that it is treat
ed with so much care while being cured.
ALI the pulp and extraneous substances are
carefully washed by hand from the berry,
and therefore there is nothing to impair
fruit is scarlet and it resembles a cherry
in size and shape, but it tastes very differ
emily, being excessively bitter and rasp-
ing. A persimmon is mild in comparison.
When the fruit is picked it is run through
a crusher, which breaks the skin and sep
arates the pulp from the seeds. Next it
is put through sort of separator and then
stirred violently around in a whirling
basin of water to wash it clean; for it is |
essential to remove all the pulp from the
kernel The Caracas washed coffee is then
all passed through the hands of women
and girls, who rub it and separate the |