18 The Cultivation and Preparation of Coffee 



a limited scale in connection with general farm 

 operations. 



To start a plantation of 500,000 plants 

 50,000 dollars capital is estimated sufficient, 

 say 10 cents for each plant. At the end of the 

 third year the first crop is obtained a 

 minimum of half a pound from each plant, or, 

 say, 250,000 Ibs. of coffee, which, at the low 

 price of 10 cents per lb., gives 25,000 dollars, 

 or 50 per cent, on the capital invested. At the 

 end of the fourth year each plant produces one 

 pound of clean coffee, equal to 500,000 Ibs. of 

 coffee, which at the same price of 10 cents gives 

 50,000 dollars. Allowing that gathering and 

 general expenses absorb the 25,000 dollars pro- 

 duced by the first crop, the planter at the end 

 of the fourth year has not only reimbursed the 

 capital outlay of 50,000 dollars, but is also the 

 possessor of a plantation that will continue to 

 give large yearly profits. 



This applies in the respective proportion to 

 a plantation of 10,000 or 100,000 plants. 



In 1896 the United States Consul General 

 in the City of Mexico, in a report to his 

 Government, said that estimates as to the 

 profits obtained from coffee planting vary, but 

 the lowest show something like 100 per cent, 

 per annum on the capital employed. 



