GUATEMALA, THE COUNTRY OF THE FUTURE 



609 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE EXPORT TRADE 



There is a fascination about this valley 

 impossible to describe, and a spell seems 

 to be cast over all who come here. It 

 is difficult to tear one's self away and 

 return to the busy life of the outer world, 

 which in this country, however, can be 

 seen to the best advantage on the great 

 banana, coffee, and sugar estates, or 

 ''fincas," as they are called. 



Bananas are grown almost exclusively 

 on the Atlantic side. The largest banana 

 plantation of the country is that of ''Vir- 

 ginia," owned by the United Fruit Com- 

 pany of Boston. It covers 5,000 acres 

 of land and exports annually 300,000 

 bunches of bananas, the total export 

 from all sections of Guatemala being 

 1,500,000 bunches. The output of the 

 United Fruit Company's Guatemala, 

 Panama, Colombia, Costa Rican, and 

 Jamaica plantations exceeds 22,000,000 

 bunches of bananas a year. The com- 

 pany has some 70 ships of from 3,000 

 to 6,000 tons running to the United 

 States and Europe. 



Almost the entire Pacific slope is given 

 over to the cultivation of sugar-cane and 

 the raising of cattle. 



The best coffee is grown in the high- 

 lands at an altitude of from 1,500 to 

 5,000 feet. 



THE country's production OF SUGAR 



From the city to the port of San Jose, 

 on the Pacific, the Guatemala Central 

 Railroad passes the largest of the sugar 

 estates. San Jose is the seaside resort 

 of the country during the months cor- 

 responding to our winter, and here one 

 finds a good hotel, fine bathing (although 

 the undercurrent is to be feared), and 

 a splendid iron pier some thousand feet 

 long. The landing of passengers here is 

 amusing to the onlooker, but far from 

 reassuring for the ones concerned, who 

 dangle helplessly in midair in a sort of 

 iron cage, as steamers cannot come up 

 alongside of the pier, and a small boat 

 has to be the means of transfer. 



But to return to the sugar. Shortly 

 after leaving Guatemala City, the road 

 follows for 15 miles the borders of Lake 

 Amatitlan. where the Indian women of 



the city take advantage of the boiling 

 springs which abound all along this body 

 of water for their laundry work. At the 

 town of Palin one is greeted by an ex- 

 tremely picturesque scene, for the train 

 is besieged by Indians in gay costumes 

 balancing on their heads large flat bas- 

 kets of gorgeous tropical fruits — ''for- 

 bidden fruit," indeed, to the traveler until 

 thoroughly acclimated. I have never 

 eaten such luscious pineapples as are 

 grown here, besides many wonderful and 

 delicious tropical fruits of which we of 

 the North know nothing. 



Here we are directly on the opposite 

 side of Agua from Antigua and a mag- 

 nificent panorama lies before us — on the 

 right the fertile slopes of the great vol- 

 cano, and before us the smiling, sunlit 

 plain stretching away 40 miles to the blue 

 waters of the Pacific. 



Concepcion is perhaps one of the most 

 interesting of the many large plantations. 

 It covers 155,000 acres and produces each 

 year 10,000 tons of sugar, 20,000 bags of 

 coffee, besides many hundred head of 

 cattle and thousands of bushels of corn. 

 It belongs to a German syndicate and is 

 valued at 1,000,000 marks ($250,000), on 

 which it pays 15 per cent. 



All of these estates have miles of pri- 

 vate railroad, and a continual stream of 

 little cars piled high with sugar-cane run 

 from the distant fields to the factory. 

 The process of sugar - making is in- 

 teresting to watch from the very be- 

 ginning, when the juice is crushed out of 

 the cane by giant machin.Ty. The dry 

 fiber is then used to stock the enormous 

 furnaces over which seethe and bubble 

 huge caldrons of syrup. Boiled down to 

 a soft mass like caramel, it is poured into 

 shallow vats to cool. The unrefined 

 sugar, of a dark-brown color, is com- 

 monly used throughout the country. It 

 is called "panela," and is molded into 

 half-round cakes, of which two together 

 make a ball, and is then curiously 

 wrapped in corn husks. 



The dwelling-houses on all the estates 

 are invariably comfortable, with wide, 

 shady porches and every modern im- 

 provement and convenience, at night 

 being light-ed by electricity. 



