288 Coffee Culture on tbe Soutbern Coast of Cbiapas. 



advantageous circumstance, not only because of the exposure of the 

 land to the sea air, which contributes greatly to the excellence of the 

 coffee and the abundance of the crop, but also because this proximity 

 to the sea cheapens considerably the freight by land. 



It may be considered that of the coffee plantations at present in 

 this District, those farthest from the port are at a distance from it of 

 twenty leagues, by the roads now in use, a distance which might be 

 considerably shortened by building new roads. 



D. Facility with which the Expenses of Coffee-Growing may be De- 

 frayed by Raising other Crops at the same Time on the same Land. One of 

 the principal drawbacks to coffee-raising is that a plantation does not 

 begin to yield until from three to five years after planting, according as 

 it has been planted from seeds or from the nursery, and few persons can 

 afford to make the outlay required during that time without obtaining 

 meanwhile any return from the money invested. 



Soconusco offers in this respect, also, advantages which are hardly 

 to be met with elsewhere. The soil best adapted for coffee is also that 

 which is best adapted for sugar-cane. In the cold, high lands adjacent 

 to this District, which do not produce sugar-cane, there is a con- 

 siderable population of Guatemalan Indians who are obliged to buy 

 there the sugar they require, whether for food or to make brandy, which 

 is largely consumed in that Republic. For this reason, there is gener- 

 ally a great demand in Soconusco for sugar, which consequently brings 

 a good price. The buyers come down for the sugar to the ranches in 

 which it is made, so that it is not even necessary to carry it to market. 



As the sugar-cane requires much less time to come to maturity than 

 the coffee plant, and its cultivation, by reason of the high price which 

 sugar brings here now, and is likely to continue to bring, yields good 

 profit, it is not only possible, but easy to derive from it the funds nec- 

 essary to start a coffee plantation. 



Those who may not have the necessary means to begin with coffee 

 might begin by planting sugar-cane. This arrives at maturity at from 

 eight to eighteen months, according to the altitude and the temperature 

 of the locality in which it is planted. The cost of cultivation is very 

 little, for it may be estimated that if the seed is near the plantation 

 the cuerda (twenty-five yards square) will not cost more than $2.50, or 

 $3.50 if the seed is at a distance. A plantation of fifty cuerdas, for 

 instance, might be formed with from $125 to $175, including all ex- 

 penses until the cane is ready to cut. A small iron sugar-mill, moved 

 by oxen, with a boiler or evaporator, may be bought for $500 or $600. 

 At a cost, therefore, of from $700 to $800, fifty cuerdas of sugar-cane 

 may be planted and ground, the net profits of which may be estimated, 

 at a minimum, at the present prices of sugar, at $20 a cuerda, which gives- 

 a gross profit of $1000. The total cost was estimated at $750; 



