Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-05
Uncle Sam Has 100000 Acres Of
Them in Porto Rico.
THERE'S Big MONEY IN some OF THEM
A Look at the Factories and the
Workers There.
THE MORTGAGED ESTATES
Copyright. 1899, by Frank G. Clrpentcr.)
ecfal Correspondence of The Evening Star

Copyright 1899, by Frank G. Carpentcr.)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PONCE, July ~, 1899.
How would you like to own a Porto
Rican plantation? There is big money in
some of them, l can tell you. l have met
several men who are making from % to 90
per cent a year out of them. One coffee
planter near Adjuntas cleaned up 100000
in 1895, and there are sugar men who are
doing equally as well. Some of the sugar
estates about Ponce produce from six to
eight thousand hogsheads a season, and
on the east coast, not far from Humacao,
there is a little cocoanut grove which will
net it's owner an annual income of $4,000
1 heard the other day of a Boston man
who has invested $4,000 in Porto Rican
cattle, and some New England bankers,
who are lending money at high rates here
in Ponce, have lately bought a planta-
ton of 1000 acres of sugar lands a few
miles up the coast from where I am now
writing. There are Florida men here who
are enthusiastic over the chances for for
tunes in oranges, pineappleS and Negeta-
bles for our city markets, and hear every
day of some American who has a new
proposition with millions in it" AS to
the industrial outlook. and the possibilities
| of the sugar and fruit lands, / will deal in
another letter.
Money in Coffee.
There is no doubt but that there is money
in coffee. Porto Rico already raises enough
to give half pound to every man, woman
and child among her fellow citizens of the
United States. She produces annually more
than 100000 pounds and she could pro-
duce at least much more So far not
one-tenth of the coffee lands have been de-
veloped and those in cultivation are not
half cared for.
This is so. although coffee is king in Por-
to Rico. 1t is the chief industry of the
island and its sale profits the country more
than anything else. The coffee exports are
three times large as the sugar exports
They amount to something like $4,000, 600 a
year and go almost altogether to conti-
mental Europe.
The Best in the World.
I doubt whether there Is a better coffee
in the world than that raised in these new
coffee fields of Uncle Sans. If there IS,
have not tasted it. Porto Rican coffee has
the same flavor as the best Mocha and
Java mixed. AS prepared by the Porto
Ricans it is drink for the gods-strong,
aromatic and delicious.
The best of the coffee is called ca fe cara
coliila: it has brought right along % cents
and more at wholesale. It all goes to
France, for it is too rich for our American
blood, costing much that our importers
have not introduced 1t into the American
markets. Thev can get Brazilian coffee
cheaper. and the profit upon it is greater
The result is that the Porto Rican coffee
has been going to Germany France Jtaly
Austria and Spain. France gets the best
Germany, Austria and Italy take the sec
Ond and third grades. and the poorest of
all is sold to the Spaniards.
| This should and will be changed There
are people in the United States who are
now paying 10 cents q pound for so-called
| Mocha and Java coffee which costs in San
| tos and Rio de Janeiro less than cents a
| pound. They could buy the Porto Rican
| "offee>at a less rate and have a better
| article.
| a Porto Rican Coffee Trust.
The Porto Rican coffee planters are just
| beginning to awaken to the possibilities Of
| our market. They have recently formed
| an association or trust to advance their
wares in the United States They will open
business houses in the cities here and in
| New York and will try to show our people
| the varieties Of coffee raised on Uncle Sans
new island. The men already Included in
this rust have plantations to the value of
S2,W5,Wn. Some Of their estates mort
Gagged, but the association expects to clear
off the mortgages by money raised in the
United States, and also to get such adj
vanccs as will enable its members to cult
vate after modern methods. Among other
things they want our Agricultural Depart
ment to establish experimental station
here devoted to coffee raising. There Is
| doubt we should have such farms in all
our tropical possessions. and / understand
that Secretary Wilson is already planning
them.
Where the Coffee Lands Are.
In Brazil the best coffee is raised at an
elevation of from 800 to 1000 feet above
the sea 1t grows on the highlands south
| of the center of the country and some dis
lance back from the ocean. The coffee
plantations of Porto Rico begin almost as
! soon as you leave the narrow strip of coast-
| al plains which runs about the island They
| grow all along the hills, clear to the tops
| Of the mountains. In some districts you
| ride for miles through nothing but coffee,
| the bushes growing among other trees.
! This is especially in the eastern end of
| the island where at blossoming time the air
| is so full of the perfumery of the coffee
| flowers that it almost overcomes ycu.
There is great deal of coffee along the
| military road and quite large amount in
| the western portion of the island. l have
| been told that coffee will grow anywhere
outside the low coast lands, and that
| there are large areas of coffee lands
| which are now in grass. There is no doubt
| that this is true. Porto Rico has in the
| ne:ghborhood of 100000 acres of land and
| there are ii is said, only about 1Oo,UOo acres
| in coffee.
| The most of the coffee lands are in
| paratiVely small tracts. 1t takes money to
| operate a coffee plantation, and for this
| reason the ordinary man cannot manage a
| large crop. The average estate is not
fifty acres although there some which
| are much larger There is a man named
| Shredder, for instance, who has a thousand
| acres, and who is putting out more every
| year. He had not large capital, but he
! bought cheap lard and put in his first trees
| in 1894. He has already had a profit of
$4,000 this year from his plantation, and he
| has thousands of young trees coming on
| and within ten years his income will be
| 500 600 year. There is a Dutchman from
| Java who has just gone into the coffee bus
| mess here who will soon have a similarly
| large property, and there are other men
| who are quietly buying up coffee lands
Prices of Lands.
And this brings me to the subject of land
values. The conditions have been SO unset
tied that Ii Ia hard to saw tus4 what thay