366 Coffee Culture on tbe Soutbern Coast of Cbiapas, 



lime-tree, aguacate, walnut, mamey-tree, castor-oil plant, the fig, and the rubber-tree, 

 as well as a host of others, are found in the State of Veracruz as shade for the coffee- 

 tree. All the trees specifically mentioned yield more or less valuable fruit, and they 

 are thus desirable on their own account, apart from their shading services." 



In the valley of the Coatzacoalcos River, the proper northern part of the Isthmus 

 of Tehuantepec, coffee-growing is no new experiment, having been carried on since the 

 time of the French colonists settling there in 1829-32, and even at present there exist 

 remains of some of these old plantations in the towns of Jaltipan, Soconusco (Santa 

 Ana), Acayucan, Hidalgotitlan, and many places on the banks of the Coatzacoalcos 

 and Uspanapa rivers ; but invariably they all are shaded, and of the new plantations, 

 many bearing and shaded by rubber-trees, exactly as good results are given in yield of 

 coffee as when shaded by jonote, coscalite, cocuite, and other shade-trees. In this dis- 

 trict the good result is proved by actual experience and existing examples ; it is no 

 theory waiting for development. In a plantation thus formed with rubber shade, when 

 the conditions will allow, the cost of production of coffee is not increased, as Seiior 

 Romero states, for the rubber forms a greater producing factor than the coffee itself, 

 and the same extension of ground planted in coffee with and without rubber shade- 

 trees, will give more than a double revenue in the former case ; or, the capitalized 

 value of the plantation in the former case is more than double what it is in the latter, 

 with hardly an imperceptible difference in cost of forming plantations. 



It is not on account of an excessive heat on the isthmus that the shading of coffee 

 is necessary. From the pass of Chi vela in the Sierra Madre to the gulf coast the ex- 

 treme temperature is between 99 and 57 F. In a letter on this subject from Coatza- 

 coalcos, dated August 17, 1880, Mr. Martin Van Brocklin, late chief engineer of the 

 Metropolitan Elevated Railroad Company of New York, and at the time chief engineer 

 of the Tehuantepec Railroad, says : " The thermometer hanging in my office has not 

 been above 85 F. since July 10, when it reached 88, nor has it been much more than 

 10 below these figures," and this was during a portion of the hottest season of the 

 year, and Coatzacoalcos is the hottest portion of the northern division of the isthmus. 



The shading of coffee is necessary on account of the continued dry southern winds, 

 prevailing during March and April, which, in addition to the sun's rays, will com- 

 pletely bake the ground and exhaust the moisture, and small plants, if not protected, 

 succumb to the combined influence of these elements. The isthmus, on account of the 

 great depression of the Sierra Madre, only some 900 feet at this point, but rising 

 very abruptly on both sides, feels the effect of the south winds as no other part of 

 Mexico on the Atlantic slope. Through the effect of the same topographical condi- 

 tions, by causing a continuous circulation of air currents from ocean to ocean, there is 

 given to this region a cooler and more salubrious climate than is encountered in any 

 other part of Mexico or Central America included within the tropics at the same 

 altitude. 



Rubber should be planted from the seed, which falls in April and May, or from 

 young plants from a nursery, at the beginning of the rainy season, in order to be well 

 rooted to resist the effects of the dry season. At the time of planting the prevailing 

 rains are generally severe showers of short duration, with afterwards an almost instan- 

 taneous hot sun. Hence, if the young plants are not protected by some light shade, a 

 considerable proportion of the rubber-plants is sure to be scalded. It is true that the 

 rubber afterwards thickens in the trunk quicker in the open, but the coffee must have 

 shade in the dry season, and unless rubber be planted three years before, some other 

 shade is necessary, and low trees like bananas, planted properly, retard the growth of 

 rubber very little. 



JALTIPAN, VERA CRUZ, MEXICO 

 October 30, 1893. 



