338 Coffee Culture on tbe Soutbern Coast ot Cbiapas. 



Each of these points will be considered separately. 



A. Necessity for and Advantages of Fertilizers. As I have already 

 stated, fertilizers are not used either in Guatemala or in Soconusco, 

 with the exceptions that I will presently state, nor has the necessity for 

 using them yet been felt. But, as it is plain that, no matter how rich 

 may be the soil, its nutritive properties will at last be exhausted if they 

 are constantly drawn from it by the trees without being replaced in 

 any way, it will be well to give some attention to this important branch 

 of coffee culture. Besides, in other localities which are not so fertile 

 as Soconusco, there may be greater need for fertilizers, and there they 

 should be used from the time the plantation is laid out. 



Without fertilizers a plantation might continue productive for ten 

 years, let us say. With fertilizers, it may be made to last fifty or a 

 hundred years in good condition, and the cost of fertilizers would in 

 any case be much less than that of forming a new plantation. 



The result of manuring, according to Mr. Sabonadiere, is an in- 

 crease in the production of each acre of from three to five English 

 quintals in every crop, or, which is the same thing, of from 36 to 60 

 pounds per cord. 



When fertilizers are used it is indispensable that the ground should 

 have a complete system of draining. 



B. Fertilizers Used in Soconusco. The only way in which I have 

 seen fertilizers used in Guatemala and Soconusco is to spread the waste 

 matter of the sugar-cane around the trunk of the coffee-trees. The 

 cane soon rots and forms a good fertilizer. It also contributes to pre- 

 vent the rains from washing away the earth. As sugar-cane is generally 

 cultivated in estates where coffee is grown, this fertilizer is cheap and 

 easy of application. 



The same use might be made of the pulp and the skins of the fruit 

 of the coffee-tree, of which there is so great a quantity, instead of 

 allowing it to go to waste as it now does in every plantation in Guate- 

 mala and Soconusco. Only common sense is needed, without any 

 knowledge of chemistry, to know that in order to keep the ground from 

 becoming impoverished it is necessary to restore to the soil the elements 

 that have been taken from it. But I am sorry to say that I have never 

 seen this fertilizer, which is at once excellent and cheap, used on any 

 estate. 



C. Fertilizers Used in Ceylon. With regard to the system of manur- 

 ing adopted in Ceylon the following points will now be considered: 



a. Substances which are used as manures. 



b. Manner of applying fertilizers to the soil. 



c. Period at which fertilizers should be used. 



d. Cost of fertilizers. 



Each of these subjects will be considered separately. 



