flntrofcuction. v 



derstood coffee raising was also very prosperous, like the Island of 

 Ceylon, in the East Indies, and Brazil, which is now and has been for 

 many years, the largest producer of coffee in the world. 



When I considered that I had mastered the subject as thoroughly 

 as I could without having any technical education for the purpose, 

 having acquired only practical information and accepted such prin- 

 ciples as my common sense made clear to me, I thought that I would 

 give the benefit of my experience to other people, both in and out of 

 Mexico, who might desire to engage in this industry. I wrote, there- 

 fore, a little manual on coffee culture on the southern coast of the State 

 of Chiapas. The knowledge I gained in making a plantation allowed 

 me to acquire practical experience on this subject, so that my opinions 

 there expressed are well-grounded and perfectly correct so far as the 

 southern coast of the State of Chiapas is concerned. In each locality, 

 the conditions vary according to the position of the mountains, the pre- 

 vailing winds, the rainfall and other circumstances which produce 

 various meteorological phenomena affecting materially the climate ; it 

 would be difficult, therefore, to give rules in detail which would apply 

 absolutely to all localities, as what is desirable in one may be very ob- 

 jectionable in another affected by different climatological conditions. 



For that reason, I confined my study to the southern district of 

 Chiapas, which I knew quite well, and tried to verify my theories by 

 what I had learned of coffee planting in other places, and especially 

 in Ceylon, as I had found books which stated in a very clear and con- 

 cise manner the system prevailing there of planting coffee information 

 which I found was very difficult to obtain from other countries, including 

 even Brazil. I published in Mexico three editions of my manual, cor- 

 recting and adding to each new one the last one being published in 

 July, 1874. There was, at the time, no interest in coffee culture 

 and very little attention was therefore paid to my manual. By the 

 advice of a friend, I placed in a bookstore about fifty copies on sale, 

 and four or six years later, only two or three had been sold. 



When the price of coffee began to rise considerably, especially af- 

 ter 1890, the culture of coffee received a great impetus, and the plan- 

 tations were very much extended, the price became very lucrative, as 

 it was sold at the plantation as high as 35 cents a pound in silver ; that, 

 of course, was a great stimulus to increase its production. However, 

 during the year 1897 the price fell considerably, as it was sold, I believe, 

 at 12 cents a pound in silver at the plantation, that being still a remu- 

 nerative price. When the interest in coffee-raising was at its height in 

 Mexico, the Mexican Government made, in 1893, a fourth edition 

 of my manual, but it was merely a republication of the former one, 

 without any change at all. Since the third edition of that book was 

 published, a great deal of interest has been awakened in the culture of 



