Idaho semi-weekly world., 1891-03-03
A COFFEE ESTATE.
METHOD OF RAISING THE popru Ae
BERRY IN GUATEMALA.

Selecting the Ground far . p,
sery OF Coffee Twigs-Labor Per-
formed by IndIans--weeding and pic,,
hg-Ready for Market.
lie who makes up his mind to creste
/ ais cohee estate or "finca,'' - must
s;s 10 prepared 70 endure from four to
SIX years of the hardest work In - -
ing he must chop wood. cut owo,, -
brush and weed his land. He mnst ba
ready TO work from sunrise to sundo,vy'
Mel.hef the damp cold of the mornine
Ihe neat OF the noon, nor the heavy after'
hooil rams should deter him from, lia
WORK. 1t Is true he may hire NATIVE
,aoo, 70 assist him, but that labor cannot
oe uepehded upon should he turn his
oaoA upon IL. In selecting the ground it
- ehe Dest 10 choose a well drained snr-
Iace, go that the heavy rains of the vvet
season VIII not prove too much for tho
trees and rot them. 1t is not necessar,,
10 nave one general slope, but hillocks
ana hlllsldes give as good results as anv
olher surface; in fact, it has been my ov,
perlence that the more inaccessible tho
point the better grows the tree.
| After his ground is well cleared be
etaits ms nursery by planting coffee twips.
which lor tnree years must be carefrllv
hurtured and attended to, when tbey are
uahsplanted to their proper places. each
oeihg eight feet distant from its immedi-
aoe ieighoors. AT the close of the fourth
&c. ooisies ohe blossoms, closely followed
oy oiie lruit. Ihen may the proprietor
eol'laceniiy contemplate his growing
fortune; the beautiful "tube rose El,a,5
white Hover, showing against the darl,
| ha
then appears the green berry. rinening
gradually, first delicate pink. cbanpin9
by degrees to dark cherry red. when If
Is ripe and ready to be gatbered The
management of finca requires experience
great activity, and attention to details
AS rev are better able to care for children
than mother who has raised them few
are more competent to manage a finca
than he who has cared for it since its very
birth. 'eAs
All the labor is performed by Indians
called in Central America mozos. II is
paid very low, and great tact is necessary
IN It's management. The demand for
mozos is no greater than the supnlv. but
the mozo laborer can find enough work to
keep him alive almost anywhere. and az
be requires very little, even less than a
Chlnaman, he will not work more than ia
necessary for his own comfort. He well
knows that his class of work is paid low.
and he recognizes the fact that he cannot
acquire sufficient wealth to hire others to
work Tor him; that is, he is a laborer for
lie. Thus, having no ambition, he will
suHer 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
n md l.
teruittently fond of his family: he will
make them work, take their wages. get
drunk, and repay them with brutal treat
ment; he is a born gambler, will steal any,
thing he can lay his hands upon, and is
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 o
coffee estate is to keep the 'cafetal," OF
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 mozos 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
! foil
rails are discovered to be in collusion with
their subortlinates.
The picker is paid in proportion to the
amount of coffee he gathers, good steady
hand being able to earn 80 centavOs per
day in the Guatemala currency, or about
35 cents in American gold. Few, how
ever, earn so much, for the mozo is a
"devil 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 2 ''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 JOS v b ch nigh net him 81 a
day. There is some vanity in this, for
when he sits exhibiting his wares he
imagines himself up to the level of the
shopkeepeI, 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
l l,,- N,I1St