The evening times., 1896-09-09
Industry That Gives Promise
of Great Development.
OPENING FOR AMERICANS
Chance for Surplus Labor and Cash.
Consul General Crittenden's Report
on the SubJect-SOil and Climate
Suitable for Growing Coffee-Ex-
traOrdinary Demand for Good Land.

| partment very full report on the co11ee
| industry in that country. 1t gives figures
| which appear To have been compiled with
| great care, to show the methods and cost
| OF going Into the business OF coffee grow
| Dg there, and indicates an opening for some
| OF the surplus American labor and capital
| which are unable to find profitable en-
| ployment under present conditions In this
| country, in farming or other productive EN-
| terprise.
| 1t offers to farmers a chance to exchange
their unsatisfactory experience in the past
few years for the pleasure of seeing a
| handsome margin OF profit on their opera
tioDs, with prospect of doing even better
| as the years go by. He also gives some fig
ures bearing upon the silver question of ill.,
| terest to workingmen.
! Mr.. Crittendep quotes Joseph Walsh, of
| Philadelphia, as follows:
1.-The industry OF coffee culture in Mexico
is In its infancy, though the product is OF
superior quality, and grading among the
best known in any country of the world.
Mexican coffee is worth at present from
20 o22 cents in the American market, while
the average cost of production is 4 cents
per pound. plantation will pay from 100
to cooper cent on the ecapitalinvested, each
tree yielding annually from three to ten
pounds. The value of the coffee plantation
is iscalculated at the rate of 81 per gro wn tree,
a single acre producing from 600 to SU0
trees.
1.-The soil and climate suitable for grow
ing coffee Ire also adapted to the cutiva-
ton of tobacco, corn, beans, bananas and
most tropical and sub-tropical fruits. But
among the marketable fruits, the growing
of which is accessory to coffee culture, the
pineapple 10 the least expensive and most
profitable, especially where the planter
has close and cheap transportation TO the
Gulf porrs."
DEMAND FOR COFFEE LANDS.
Also Prof. Moses, OF the University Of
California, after visit to Mexico in 1895
to study its prospects, said: The cost of
the production OF coffeein general in Mexico
is Sto 10 cents per poundin Mexican money,
and it sells for 20 to 80 cents. The facts
Indicate that the present extraordinary
demand for coffee lands in Mexico have
reasonable founda tion. Mexico has i'm
portant advantages. She has territory
adapted in soil and climate to this form OF
cultivation, and in the Indians an excel
lent body OF laborers, perhaps better fitted
for this kind OF work than the ordinary
lahorers ofany other country. The exports
of coffee from Mexico have run a steady
increase from ,432 100 pounds, in 1873,
to % ,197 ,O56, in lSsO''
j. p. Taylor, a resident Of the City OF
Mexico, says: Generally speaking, the
Mexican planter has fewer troubles to con
tend within growing coffee than the planter
ofanyother country and is sure OF regular
crop. Twenty five years may be taken
as the average OF coffee trees to remain in
remunerative bearing. Estimates as to
the profits vary, but the lowest OF them
shows something like 100 per cent for the
capital employed"
Mr.. Crittenden makes no comment upon
the effect of silver upon the industry of the
country. and especially upon the condition
of the laboriDg classes, but he inserts some
significant statements. He quotes DIR.
William S. Cockerill, son of Senator
Cockerill, OF Missouri, as follows:
Il have been resident of Mexico for
five years, have been engaged in raising
sugar cane, coffee and tropical fruits on
hacienda near the san Juan Evangelista in
the State of Vera Cruz, and have had ex-
elusive control Of Mexican labor. find
them a class exceedingly susceptible to the
management by which they are controlled
They are easily rendered vicious by injudi-
cious management and may be main
tanned at high STANDARD with care, and
by rigid enforcement of orders and rules.
with no familiarity whatever exercised
toward the men,
WAGES ARE Low.
The lower the wages the better the
service; even below s cents day, as then
they have no excess to waste, and not SO
many holidays on which to waste it,
Another writer is quoted as saying: AT
present abundant labor is available at an
average cost of 90 cents a day for full
grown man, and, If employed regularly,
from $40 to S12 a month. Mexican silver.
LAS Mexican silver dollars can be had
readily at 90 cents each of American gold
standard money, this means that these men
are paid 25ceDts a day, or So to sea month.
Women and childrendo greatdeaI OF work
on the coffee plantations. and during the
picking season the major part of it, for
which they receive much 10 wer compensa
ton than the men. After a plantation is
five years old the owner can figure his labor
at an average cost of 20 Q2 1-2) cents
per day.
While Mr.. Crittenden warns all at the
outset that he never saw coffee growing
till he was sent to Mexico in 1893, he says
that he has taken great pains to be ac-
curate in his statements as to the cost OF
growing, the value and character of the
different varieties, and the portions of the
country to which each is adapted. Allthese
are fully set forth in his report
At the close he gives this warning:
'Many reports are highly colored for
purpose, and 1t may be well for ME to sug-
gest to the people OF the United States not
to believe exaggerations. In the un-
settled condition OF the agricultural and
laboring population of the Uuited States,
these boomers see their opportunity, be-
lieving there may be disposition to view
pot OF gold at the end Of the rainbow,
'or them to come here and regain their
failing fortunes without much labor.
PRICE OF LAND.
"This is a serious error. As In all other
countries, a man gains nothing here with
out early and late labor. As a rule,
would not recommend anybody to under
take coffee-raising in Mexico without suf-
ficient capital to pay for 250 acres Of
land, cash in hand, and have at least
So, 900 in Mexican currency to meet the
first years expenses"
Else where Consul Charles Schaefer shows
that the cost OF land is about $40 an acre.
making capital of 81 800 for land. and
81 300 in all, the amount desirable to
start in the business.