16 AGRICULTUEAL EESOUBCES, ETC., OF PORTO RICO. 



is done. Shade for the first five years is furnished by planting bananas 

 between the coffee plants. Later guava trees, furnish shade. On 

 the coffee plantations I visited little attention had been paid to setting 

 in rows to any exact distance apart. In many instances two plants 

 had been set together, on the theory that one might die. Sufficient 

 cai-e was not taken to thin the bananas, so as to furnish the requisite 

 amount of sunshine. The most reliable inforuiation I could obtain 

 placed the average annual yield of coffee per acre at 100 to 400 pounds ; 

 but if the total product of coffee any year be divided by the number 

 of acres given by the planters for assessment, it shows a product of 

 430 pounds per acre for the entire island. Notoriously, however, the 

 number of acres given for assessment was below the real number in 

 crop, and consequently is not an exact guide. 



A coffee plantation should improve every year with increase in age 

 for twenty-five to thirty years, and the annual product should average 

 1,000 pounds per acre under cultivation. When it falls to 250 pounds, 

 it shows faulty cultivation. 



The crop commences to ripen in the early fall, and is picked by hand 

 at an average cost of half a cent (gold) per pound for the green fruit. 

 There are three processes of curing. One exposes the ripe berry to 

 the sun till the pulp is desiccated, which requires several weeks. In 

 the second process the berries are passed between the rollers of a 

 "pulper," and reduced to a pulp, which is dried in the sun before 

 removing the grain. By the third method, and the one generally 

 used, the pulping process is followed by washing, to free the grains 

 from the pulp. The grains are then dried and sent to the merchant's 

 warehouse, or to the port, where the skin enveloping the grain is 

 removed by machinery and the grain polished. Mocha and Old Gov- 

 ernment Java are prepared by the first process, which is considered 

 to give a coffee of higher flavor. The third process enables the planter 

 to market his crop much earlier and with less labor. 



MARKETING THE CROP. 



Before placing coffee upon the gen^'al market it is graded by selec- 

 tion into six classes, known in the island by the following names, in 

 order of quality: First, caracolillo; second, hacienda; third, pueblo; 

 fourth, cubano; fifth, merinda; sixth, frilla. The quality of the better 

 grades of Porto Rican coffee is excellent, and compares favorably with 

 the best coffees of the world. Till the American occupation it was 

 chiefly marketed in Europe, as shown by the following table for the 

 year 1896: 



Exportation of coffee frovi Porto Rico for the year ISOG. 



Countries to which exported: Pounds. 



Spain 16,405,900 



France _. 11,306,689 



Germany 8, 130, 409 



Italy .._. 4,388,819 



Cuba - - 15,577,710 



United Kingdom 304, 119 



Austria-Hungary ._. __ 3,280,331 



United States _ 333, 591 



Danish possessions _ 19,595 



British possessions 453 



Santo Domingo — 33, 501 



Total 58,780,006 



