Feb. I, 1886.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



57^ 



is thought too close and they line 12x12. The 



tree is mostly allowed to grow just as it pleases. 

 In some cases there are rude attempts at cultivation. 

 For instance some few planters, those with ad- 

 vanced ideas (?), top the plant as soon as it is 

 planted out within a toot of the ground, and two 

 stems are allowed to grow for six feet ; then these 

 two stems are again cut and four stems are grown. 

 After this the tree does just as it pleases. Picking 

 is done witli ladders, and a piece of one real (25 cents 

 of your money) is paid for each measure. A 

 measure is equal to one of your palam bushels. As 

 soon as the cherry leaves the tree the method of 

 curhig is then entered on, and it is conducted in a 

 most slovenly, careless manner. Now the great 

 falling-off takes place.' They have all Gordon's 

 pulpers. cisterns (or wet parchment, and drying 

 patios for tlieu- coffee, peelers and the coffee is 

 picked in the usual way. But strange, as it may 

 seem, they don't seem to know rightly how to make 

 use of them. The coffee bean is a vei-y fine one, 

 and I don't see any reason why it should not 

 command the same price in the London market as 

 the Ceylon coffee. But it docs not by a long way. 

 Now the question, I may say the very vexed 

 question, which will occur to the mind of a Ceylon 

 planter, is. how on earth is it that these people 

 in Central America can make coffee plantations 

 pay large returns, with labour at SO cents a day 

 and upwards, a longer sea voyage, and the very 

 expensive isthmus of Panama to cross, with all the 

 risks of transhipments and we cannot do so here? 

 I think their wonder will almost amount to in- 

 credulity when I add that there is an export duty of 

 50 cents on every quintal of coffee. (A quintal is 

 100 lb.) The cost of taking the coffee from the dis- 

 tricts nearest to the railway stations is from 160 cents 

 to two rupees. The Bailway Company has a mono- 

 poly by which they charge 80 cents for running 

 about .50 miles. The Wharf Company has another 

 monopoly by which they charge 60 cents for allow- 

 ing the coffee to cross their wliarf, which monopoly, 

 IS joined to another monopoly of transhipment of 

 the coffee from the end of the wharf to the steamer, 

 60 cents more. Poor coffee, poor coffee planters! How 

 would you in Ceylon stand that sort of tiling? 

 Don"t you think every planter would before now 

 have invested all his savings in dynamite and 

 blown Ceylon into some other spliere rather than 

 tolerate these monopolies one day? 1 think, 

 they "'ould. When in addition to all the above 

 charges, I tell you that the coffee only- 

 fetches some 60 shillings (which is placing very 

 high, 40 to 60 is nearer) in the London market, 

 I shall not be at all surprised if my statements 

 are received with a certain amount of incredulity. 



But I hope to make you understand tJie reason 

 thereof. The secret rests in the enormous pro- 

 duction. A coffee estate in the best districts (I 

 make this qualification because at one time people 

 were so crazy for coffee that they planted it 

 everywhere) when the trees are in full bearing 

 yields about three quintals per querda. There are 

 eight querdas to an acre, so that the yield is 

 from 1 ton to 1 ton 5 cwt. per acre. How 

 is that ? Does not the planter of Ceylon long 

 for lands blest by nature in this way? I have seen 

 of soil, a tine chocolate loom, rich and friable, 

 30 feet deep, and plenty of it intermixed with 

 layers of volcanic ash a foot to three feet thick. 

 The total amount of coffee shipped last year from 

 (inatemala was about 400,000 quintals (pronounced 

 kmtals 100 lb.) which is very considerable. It is 

 Tery difficult to arrive at correct statistics here. 



The Indian population are a very industrious 

 class, bard-woikiug and law-abiding. There are 



quite a number of different languages each quite 

 distinct from the others. They are by far the 

 largest portion of the population of the country : 

 altogether I suppose there are about a million, 

 and some .SOO.OOO or 400.000 Ladinos, or mixed 

 breeds, the descendants of the Spaniards intermixed 

 • with the Indians. 



The Ladinos chiefly congregate in the towns and 

 are employed in all the Government offices, post 

 and telegraph, etc. The Indian occupy the altos 

 and cultivate wheat, maize, potatoes, — oats, in fact 

 fi'! the wants of the people. They are great car- 

 riers of burdens, 100 to 150 pounds is not at all 

 an unusur' load for them to carry 150 to 200 

 miles. I l.ke them very much indeed. They can 

 be trusted implicitly except only with drink. Here 

 lies their greatest weakness. They are born drunk- 

 ards. It is customary in a family of Indians for 

 the heads of the household to get drunk turn 

 about. The husband is always accompanied by his 

 wife, who keeps perfectly sober and sees that no 

 harm comes to her spouse. Next feast day it is 

 her turn to get drunk and he looks after her. A 

 few weeks ago when returning from my last visit 

 of inspection I passed a large village, which was 

 simply crowded with Indians who had come to 

 a fiesta. They were all under the influence of liquor 

 and were becoming worse every minute. I passed 

 through alright and for five to six leagues along 

 the road I passed groups of twos, fours and sixes. 

 The half were horribly drunk and the other half 

 comparatively sober. They never attempt to molest 

 anyone travelhng when in this state. They all 

 carried gourds which were tilled with a kind of nati .e 

 beer brewed from sugarcane. I only saw one man 

 alone; as I passed him he called: "Patronc, allow me to 

 mount your spare mule. Take me along mth you 

 for God's sake. I am aU alone. My wife is not 

 here — left me," &c. Then he cried as though his 

 heart would break and rolled in the dust. In 

 travelling 1 always carry a revolver, but have seldom 

 had occasion to draw it and never used it. They 

 have a mortal dread of Englishmen. An English- 

 man could travel from the boundary of Texas 

 through Mexico and Central America to the Argent- 

 ine Eepublics, and I don't think he would be 

 very ranch molested. They usually class our 

 American cousins and the English as one, and 

 call them Ingleses. " Los Ingleses estan muy 

 bravos." On one occasion a Texan was travelling 

 through the country and happened to be on the 

 road on Holy Thurs.lay. To travel on Holy Thurs- 

 day is thought so bad, so outrageous and sacrilegious, 

 that the culprit is in danger of being stoned in 

 passing any Pueblo. The Texan, a muscular 

 Southerner, quite innocent of harm, entered a 

 village and was passing quietly through. He 

 was greeted everywhere with all kinds of reproaches, 

 and grown bold with talk and liquor they began 

 stoning him. This was rather too much. He drew 

 his shooting irons and in n very short time 

 captured the town. The men mostly took refuge 

 on the hill and the women closed their doors and 

 prayed for the saints to relieve them of the fear- 

 ful tiend. History records that he had a pair of 

 horns and a tail ; be that as it may, they all have 

 a most wholesome fear of foreigners and especially 

 los Ingleses ever since. 



I think I shall now conclude this letter. So far 

 I have had to crowd what I have to say very 

 much. In my next I shall tell you of how we 

 journey through this country. Also of my journey 

 of exploration to the Atlantic coast, and my cx- 

 nerience while commissioner to the New Orleana 

 Exhibition,— Yours truly, W, J. FOBSl'TH, 



