jfitness ot tbe Uebuantepec Xante for Coffee* 367 



ANOTHER RESPONSE TO SEftOR ROMERO. 



To the Editor of the " India-Rubber World" : 



I notice with surprise the criticisms of Senor Romero, in relation to F. O. Hani- 

 man's experience in coffee and rubber cultivation on the isthmus of Tehuantepec, as 

 detailed in his article in your edition of August i$th. My brother has had an almost 

 continuous experience in the locality mentioned for over ten years past, and has given 

 the subject an exhaustive study, in connection with the opportunities afforded him 

 through the pursuits of his profession as civil engineer engaged in locating and build- 

 ing the railroad across the isthmus. 



That the lands and climate of this locality are unusually well suited to the culti- 

 vation of coffee, a number of plantations in the neighborhood, such as Pena Blanca, 

 Villa Alta, and the Boca de Chuniagoa, can testify. 



These plantations yield per tree enormously more than those of Cordova and the 

 coffee-producing districts of Oaxaca. On account of the great fertility of the soil, the 

 trees open out so much that they have to be planted three and four yards apart, else in 

 four years they would completely interlace. The trees commence to bear in three 

 years after first setting out, and when in full bearing, in five years, will yield large 

 amounts. At the Pena Blanca plantation, the average crop is 3^ pounds per tree ; it 

 is of a very superior quality, with a little less caricolilla than Cordova or Oaxaca, per- 

 haps, but the yield per tree is very much greater than in those districts, where only 

 from to i pounds per tree is obtained, and naturally it will be a great deal more ad- 

 vantageous to cultivate plantations in this district. 



I fail to grasp the pertinence of Senor Romero's suggestion that " the fact that 

 coffee-trees cannot grow in this locality without shade, shows it is not the proper zone 

 for coffee-growing." This fact is no more conclusive than the fact that a few years 

 ago, when the railroad construction company sent 3000 wheelbarrows to this locality, 

 the native Indians employed there would not use them until they had taken out the 

 wheel and placed a man at each end of the barrow, is conclusive that nineteenth-cen- 

 tury ideas are not applicable to labor in this district. 



The simple fact that it has been the custom until recently to cultivate coffee only 

 at a higher elevation above the sea-level than this valley, seems to me to offer no valid 

 reason for not accepting the much greater yield of the product attained from richness 

 of soil, etc. , here with shade, especially when the product of the shade-trees, in seven 

 years from planting, yields a larger profit than the coffee-trees even, and divides the 

 expense of maintenance. 



For commercial purposes, it -will do "to change the conditions of nature," as 

 illustrated by the reclaiming of large tracts of the " great American desert," by arti- 

 ficial irrigation, and the deepening of the outlets of numerous rivers by jetties recently 

 constructed. I see no reason for declining to adopt modern ideas for the cultivation 

 of coffee and rubber in conjunction when the outlook is so promising. 



J. P. HARRIMAN. 



WOONSOCKET, R. I., November 9, 1883. 



The India-Rubber World, February 15, 1894 : 



AN ANSWER FROM SESOR ROMERO. 



To the Editor of the " India-Rubber World" : 



I have seen in your issue of December isth, a communication from Mr. F. O. 

 Harriman, C.E., dated at Jaltipan, Veracruz, Mexico, on October 3oth last, com- 

 menting on my letter published in your October number, in which I criticised his 

 former article about his Tehuantepec India-rubber and coffee plantations. 



