76 COFFEE. 



pulp, and the final preparation for the market. When there is a sufficient 

 number, or a sufficient space of Barbecues or Secadors, sixty or seventy barrels 

 only are put together ; but from want of room it often happens that the quantity 

 amounts to a hundred barrels. In either case, the whole is gathered into two 

 great heaps, and in this state it is allowed to remain for four-ami- twenty hours, 

 in order to subject it to a certain degree of fermentation. After this, it is spread 

 out to dry over the whole surface of the Barbecue, and until it is sufficiently 

 so, it remains there uncovered day and night. When the dessication is 

 found to be far enough advanced, it is no longer exposed during the night ; 

 nor even during the day, if the weather be damp or unfavorable. The sub- 

 sequent operations are certainly not better, probably not so well, conducted as 

 in our own West India possessions. 



In the fourth year, it is presumed that the agricultural produce of the land, 

 and the first returns of coffee, should be sufficient to meet all the current ex- 

 penses. At the end of the fifth year there ought to be forty thousand coffee 

 trees four years old on the estate, 60,000 of three years, and 100,000 of two and 

 one year, the \ roduce of which ought to be at least 400 quintals, which, at a 

 moderate estimate, should be worth 2,400 dollars. Thus the calculation goes 

 on until we arrive at the end of the seventh year, when the estate ought to be 

 in full bearing. The returns are estimated at 3,000 arrobas, or 750 quintals, 

 which, at eight dollars per quintal delivered free on board, make 6,000 dollars. 

 The minor products of the estate, such as Indian corn, pigs, and oil, are given 

 at 1,130 dollars, making the gross returns 7,130 dollars ; and, after deducting the 

 annual expenses, leaving 5,300 dollars as the regular return on the capital in- 

 vested, which, having been about 40,000 dollars, gives about thirteen per cent. ; 

 not certainly to be considered extravagant in a country where twelve per cent, 

 is the regular rate of interest. The produce of coffee from each section is given 

 at 400 arrobas, or 3,500 arrobas for the whole of the nine sections. The average 

 price of coffee, free of the expense of carriage, is assumed to be two dollars the 

 arroba, or eight dollars per quintal, which would give a return of 7,200 dollars, 

 besides the repayment of the rent by the colonists. 



The cultivation of coffee has been falling off in Cuba for several 

 years past, the crops it is asserted being too precarious there, and 

 the prices too low to encourage the continuance of planting. On 

 the northern side of the island is where this decrease is most per- 

 ceptible, several of the largest estates having been converted to 

 the growth of sugar and tobacco, others abandoned to serve as 

 pasture fields, and the very few remaining yielding less and less 

 every year. Henceforward the culture of this berry here is likely 

 to be very insignificant, and not many years will elapse before the 

 amount produced will merely suffice for the local consumption. 

 About St. Jago de Cuba the cultivation is more attended to, the 

 article forming still their principal export. Taking five quinquen- 

 nial periods, the following figures show the average animal exports 

 of coffee : 



arrobas. 



1826 to 1830 1,718,805 



1830 1835 1,995,832 



1835 1840 1,877,646 



1841 1846 1,887,444 



1846 1851 768,244 



The better to exhibit the decrease of production throughout the* 

 island, I may state that the export from 1839 to 1841 inclusive, 

 was in the aggregate 1,332,221 quintals ; 1842 to 1844, inclusive, 

 was in the aggregate 1 ,217 : G6G quintals ; 1845 to 1847, inclusive, 

 was in the aggregate but 583,208 quintals. The exports of coffee 



