St. Paul daily globe., 1891-02-18
A Land Where Some OF the
Worlds Leading Staples
Are Raised.
Coffee Trees Which Live,
Thrive and Bear Well for
Seventy Years.
The Cacao Tree, Which Raises
Chocolate Entirely With
out Sunshine.
Sugar Flourishes in Many
Places--Wopk Of the
Sugar Trust.
ro tbs Editor ~ tho Clobe

For the benefit of your readers, l
have collected some facts regarding the
productions of Venezuela that are not
generally known much about, except
the fact that they exist, in the United
States. and may serve to amuse, II they
do not interest, the persons that may
read this letter. Through the courtesy
of Gen. Jose Antonio MaSquara, L was
shown through his coffee plantation
and works, near the city of Caracas,
and learned from him the following
facts about the coffee culture:
In planting coffee, the bean, in its
natural state, is laid on rich soil, with
light covering of dirt and another cover
ing of leaves. In about three weeks the
plant comes through, and in six weeks
TIVE or three leaves show. Care must
be taken at all times to protect the plant
from the rays of the sun. 1t is then
taken up and set where it is to grow.
Coffee trees will, if we'll protected and
cultivated, live and bear up to sixty to
seventy years, or even longer, if in rich
soil and proper temperature; each tree
will produce, on an average, one pound
of coffee each year. The e,grows to
about eight feet high, and is
Inclined to be bushy. The shad-
Ing of the tree is necessary to
protect it from the sun, and Is usually
done bv planting it under mango and
other f1uit trees that have a dense
foliage, though it Is sometimes done
with banana and plantainS. When so
done no attention is paid to the fruit, as
they are simply planted for the shade.
The picking of coffee begins about
Oct. l and ends about Jan. l in each
year. Gen. Masquara employs between
$50 and 200 women as pickers OH his eS-
tate. 1t is very interesting thing to
follow the coffee from the tree to the
steamer. Each woman has basket in
front of her, tied with rope around
her body, that she drops the pods
into. 1t is then carried i'll and
piled on brick floor, where 1t looks
very much like large cranberrles, both
I'm looks and color. 1t is next put
though cylinder, where the hulls are
crushed, then passed into a vat, where
1t lies in water for about three hours.
During this time the sugar that the cof-
fee is coated with when it comes out Of
the pod leaves it, and the water at the
same time assists in giving it the proper
color. From this vat it is spread out On
large brick floor, in the sun, to dry.
There it is stirred frequently, to pre-
vent any part of it from mildeWlng.
After it is dried 1t is next put into
trough. and large hardwood
rollers passes over it, until the pod
and other substances that may have ad-
hered to the bean are removed. From
there it is put through tanning mill.
where the pods and chaff are separated
from the bean; from the tanning mill it
goes to long separating sieve OF cyiin-
der shape, where it is again subjected
TO another thorough cleaning and all
small beans are dropped out. From this
sieve it is put onto tables, where it is
hand-picked by women, and all black
and bad beans are picked out. From
these tables it goes into bags, thence to
steamers on donkeys' backs, in carts or
by rail, as the means of transportation
may offer; thence to the consumer in
various parts of the world.
Five pounds of coffee in pods, as 1t
comes from the tree, makes one pound
of merchantable coffee.
The cacao- pronounced kaycOu-tree,
that raises the chocolate bean, grows to
from Is to 20 feet high and from to s
inches in diameter. 1t requires hot and
damp ground. and shaded SO that no rays
of the sun can penetrate to tree or fruit
1t begins to bear at four years, and at
six is in its prime, and if properly cared
for will bear fruit for twenty-five or
thirty years.
The cacao grows out from the body of
the tree, something like fungus, and
in looks, as far in size and shape, very
much like a large cucumber that has
0l m On IN III Q
being very near maroon.
Senor Luis Rus, the owner of the
largest chocolate establishment IN
Caracas, kindly permitted me to go
through it, and there / saw the process
of chocolate e-making from the time the
bean entered the door in the pod, until
Ii went out in boxes ready for the table.
After being hulled the bean is
roasted, next is put into a separator of
cylinder shape, where the different
grades are sorted out. The process of
sorting the chocolate bean is similar to
the one in use in our wheat elevators to
clean and separate the wheat. 1t goes
from the separator to a crusher, and
next to tanning mill, where all
chaff and foreign matter is
blown out of 1t. From there
to the grinder, where 1t Is made into a
two large rollers. Here sugar and Gin
namon are mixed with it. Thence it
passes between three more large stone
rollers, similar to those used for making
patent -four. From the large rollers it
again passes through still another set
of smaller ones, where it is further
mixed and refined. Thence 1t goes to
the worm, something like our sausage
grinders. There it is cut Off and
weighed, and put into forms and the
forms put OH an agitating table that
shakes and levels. or evens, it in the
forms. 1t is then set to one side, and In
twenty-four hours is dry and ready for
the market.
The chocolate here sells, at present,
for 26, 80. 40 and SO cents per pound,
according to quality. 1t is all pure
chocolate, the only difference being in
the grade of the bean used.
| am under obligations to Seniors
Filipe Scandella and 1gnacio Ascano
for cOurtesies in showing me through
and explaining the various processes
necessary in the manufacture of choc-
olate.
Senor Anjel Quintoro, who has cocoa
estate of SO, 100 acres, near La Guayra.
on which he has $4,000 trees, in addition
to cocOa-palm, oranges, lemons, ETC.,
says that there are different kinds of
cacaO, some sweet and others bitter.
The sweet sells for S32 per fanago Q0O
pounds), and the bitter sells for as low
as $12 for the same weight. He also says
that of the chocolate beans that are
shipped out of this country, the best
goes to Spain, and that the Spaniards
are willing to pay for the best. The
poorer grades go to Paris and New
York.
The land that produces the best quail
ity Of sugar is rich loan, with good