The Hawaiian gazette., 1896-10-06

liCbul W OuldlH except lIOu the ldUu
companies started here Mexico City
for the purpose Of supplying lots to in
tending settlers.
There is also no charge made for
the cost of superintendent, which
would vary from $50 to 500 month
and found) with the size of the plan
tation and the capacity of the respect
i've superintendent. Living expenses
are likewise omitted and may be as
sumed by the interested party equal to
the cost of farm life in other countries.
The returns from side crops are not
taken into consideration, which some
times help materially toward paying
expenses.
The machinery here estimated for
may be worked the first year by hand,
but Gy applying horse power it is suf-
riicient for the crop OF 200 acres.
in calculating the crop returns, the
lowest price of ordinary Mexican coffee
only is taken into consideration, while
it may be fairly assumed that by adopt
ing an improved and modern method
of curing the product, considerably
larger price may be secured. 1t is also
well to add that the price of operations
such as clearing, wedding and pruning,
contemplates not the slipshod manner
| in which such things are ordinarily at
tended to in some sections of the coun-
try, but such as prevails on plantations
where all operations are conducted by
experienced managers, and with view
of obtaining the highest results pos
sibIe under well systematized and or
ganiZed direction.
OF course coffee can be planted and
! brought to bear in the manner usually
| employed in most old districts. and
| perhaps trif1e cheaper than here esti-
mated, but the results are far from be-
/ ing as good, either in the early ma
! tuIity of the trees or in the quality of
the coffee produced, or in the duration
of the productive life of the plant.
The cost and product are only brought
| down to the end of the fourth year,
after which much larger crop may
be counted on with regularity, while
under the present system of cultivation
there is good crop one year and a
| lesser one the next.
SECTIONS BEST SUITED.
1t is supposed by many that the
whole of Mexico is adapted to grow
ing OF coffee. That is mistake The
northern part of the Republic, stu
ated outside of the tropics, is temper
ate and produces the vegetation proper
to that zone. The southern part, which
lies between IA deg. 80 min. and 90 deg
30 min. north latitude, may justly BIZ
called the hot country, the coffee pro
ducing country, as rule
Not all the places found in the torriC
zone are adapted to the development
of the coffee tree. Coffee may be prof
ltably grown at an elevation of 800 tt
900 metres (about 200 feet, but be
yond 1000 metres it does not produce
enough to justify its cultivation. COT
fee grows we'll at OriZaba, but not be
yond toward the City of Mexico, which
2 is lS2 miles northwest and at an eleya
ton of 800 feet. The climate in the
| cofIee producing regions is generally
pleasant, neither too hot nor too cool
The nights are especially pleasant anC
refreshing, arising, it may be, from the
peculiar formation of that country anC
the constant interchange of air cur,
rents from the Gulf of Mexico, the At
lantic and Pacific oceans. The produc.
ton of coffee here is like that of Other
crops in the United States, governed By
1.-THE season, soil and cultivation.
INDIVIDUAL ESTIMATES.
Joseph Walsh of Philadelphia says:
The industry OF coffee culture is
still in its infancy in Mexico. though
the product is of superior quality and
grading among the best grown in any
country of the world
Mexican coffee is worth at present
from 20 to % cents per pound in the
American market, while the average
cost OF production is cents. A planta-
ton will pay from 100 to 300 per cent
on the capital invested, each tree Yield
ing annually from to 10 pounds.
The value OF coffee plantations in
full bearing is calculated at the rate of
81 per grown tree, a single acre produc-
ing from 600 to 500 trees.
The soil and climate suitable for
lcoffee growing are also adapted 10 the
cultivation of tobacco, corn, beans. ba-
nanas, and most tropical and sub
tropical fruits. But among all market
able fruits the growing of which is
here accessory to coffee culture. the
pineapple is the least expensive and
most profitable, especially where the
planter has close and cheap transport
alton to the Gulf ports.''
In 1895 Professor Moses of The Uni
yersity of California visited Mexico for
the purpose of studying its physical
and economical aspects. In one of his
letters he says:
AT present the cultivation OF coffee
is attracting special attention, and on
the eastern slope much progress has
already been made
Among the reasons is the extraordi-
nary profit which the production of cot
fee offers.
The cost of its production in Mex
leo in general is between S and 10
cents per pound (Mexican), and it sells
at from % to 80 cents.
Mexico has important ADVANTAGES.
She has territory adapted in
SOIL and climate to this form of cult
yation, and in the Indians an excellent
body of laborers, perhaps better fitted
for this kind of work than the ordi-
nary laborers of any other country
From an examination of the sta
tistics we get The following general re-
suits, showing the exports of coffee
from Mexico:
in 1878, 1,432, 100 pounds; in 1888.
z