34 
THE TROPICAL 
AGKICULTURIST. [Jlly 1, 1898. 
■tacles to be met with in coifee culture in Mexico- 
The ordinary peon laborer will cut and slash thn 
tree Indiscriminately if not carefully watched, and 
they Bomotimes totally ruin tbe next yt-ar'a croj). 
The work of weeding and keeping the 'Joil free from 
grasses which p;row so luxuriaully in this ciiunil.e,i8 
very arduous and expensive. 
" Ihe total cost of bringing my 500 acres of coffee 
trees to maturity, that is, tlie fifth year afie. )i!aiiliug 
was about f>18,UU0 in Mexican silver, which nun> in- 
cluded my living expenses and tlio buildings erected 
on jny plantation. Ihe first crop that 1 gathered 
averaged half a pound per tree, which I sold for IG 
cents a pound, gold. The fourth year the production 
was one and one-quarter pounds, and the fifth ye:ir 
showed a trifle over two pounds per tiee, wliich has 
been the average production for the past live years. 
I have never lost a crop, and niy trees are all healthy 
and the plantation is in the best possible condition. 
The life of a coffee tree is about thirty years. In the 
twenty-fifth year about one-half of the trees should be 
t&ken up and the ground replanted to young trees. 
This, of course, cuts the planter's income down to 
oue-balf for the ensuing five years, but insures the 
original income for the next twenty years tliereafter. 
My income for the past five years from my 5U0 acres 
of trees has averaged SlO,000, Mexican silver, from 
vrhich, deducting the cost of curing the crop and 
care of the land, about $il'J,(lOO, leaves me a clear 
income of §21,000, which I consider a good invest- 
ment for my $'20,0i.0 Mexican silver. There are many 
men in Mexico who have enormous incomes from 
their coifee plantations, and all the old plantations 
Rre making money. On the Isthmus of Tehuanlepec, 
ivhich is the ideal coffee-growing country of Mexico, 
personally know dozens of men whose incomes 
range from §10,000 to §60,000 per year. It is only 
the inexperienced growers and those who began with- 
out suf&cient capital and with no knowledi^e of the 
language or l»bor conditions who are crying about 
there being no profit in the business." 
ySith the exception of maize, coffee forms the most 
remunerative of Mexico's agricultural producte. During 
the past year Mexico sold to the United States 
32,387,823 pounds of coffee, worth in gold S^.SSO.SO;'), 
ftB compared with but 18,959, -167 pounds, worth S:'!,179,67» 
in gold in the corresponding period of the pre- 
vious year. Thus, tbe average value of Mexican 
coffee during 1895 was 1G*77 cents a pound, and 15 OG 
in 1897. 
THE TEA PLANTING INDUSTRY 
AND ECONOMY. 
April 29. 
iJlR, — A wonn will turn when trodden on ur- 
mercifnlly, but it is something out of the common 
to lind a planter rounding on the big-wigs of 
Colombo ancl London. Having a fellow-feeling 
for "An Unfortunate iSliaieholder " in tlie 
Observer of the 28th inst., and tiiink ng that 
it is about time some one should resent me one- 
sidedness of this economical wave which ha.s been 
sweeping over Ceylon for .«onie time past 1 feel 
constrained to give that unfortunate my moral 
support if nothing else. 
1 have no wish to single out any one particular 
concern, but I was surprised to see that Hugh 
(said to be of The Rock) having got the sow 
by the riglit ear, allowed liiinselt to be ground 
to pieces like so much rotten old red sand- 
stone. It does seem strange there should be 
such exceeding great extiavagance in local and 
London charges as also in palatial new factories in 
face of what we are told is something little short 
of a crisis unless it pays the wire pullers or 
some one to liave it so. 
I am not the only one who has felt inclined to 
I k the local Press if they were subsidised by 
I,, c (Company Mpngevs of London and Colombo j 
for all along it has been the ha|>j>\ •> l i l.y dny* 
of 20 |>er t(!iit arc over, ami now y - lia\c 
got to work just a* ii we'd hben pi. : )ol for 
years, and the 20 per cent had can.- ii iioi.ll. 
A lucky fjauibler in ilie lea wn Id ti\k> >- a luii 
out to Ceylon to c-^cape the \\ r. _..t 
a liver. 'Ihe trip spelii* profit .-i .le 
to him, but it's r"U-!i on tiie j. 
I'eter Dick promptly nois (he Mick iiikI )<attiiy 
Simple gets llif eupervi.iion of the Cock (jf the 
North E-tate. some 5<J<> ncit.-, on ilit; liundniiu>e 
addition of H5o per mensem to his t^alaiy and 
a conductor as resident munager. 
It's only half-a-dozen niile.s uway, however, 
BO .Sandy can ea^-ily \isit his out lying charge m 
well Mi his factiiry, at lea^l t\M(.e a n.-iy itiid gi»e 
special care and attention to Iiik iiiitnulaciuie, 
witii the view of inipruving hi« prices whicli 
some ci'acke<l old nlu.'^it'al imsirumen'. in the )>hH]«e 
of a Ciiairni-xn of Directujii in l^ondou will 
asHurc his nhare .oldtrs i« very probnble ; but it 
it right of the local I'rcss lu apidautl pxntkisuf 
this sort ami call it tiiie and fai-i-eeing e<x<n<>niy ? 
When cod'ee went to the wall vhut niuinpiik 
there was over return cummiK-,iuiiK jind t-mh iiku 
little f<windlc>', and I um rnn<'h inistuken it nlieu 
the tea pot In-gins to boil over, we tiou'l hu«o 
a hi'.'h old (lliohy'K day once again. 
Do you know it our local ItiokeiH get the one 
per cent which their memo*, to le^n- 
iarly show? I'd like to know ilii« and loie of 
other thingH, but enough for the \picMnit.— Voui» 
faithfully, A I'OOi: TLANThU. 
MANURING OF TEA. 
May 2. 
Sir, — A perusal of Mr. flanr's leHer sugpeet« a 
doubt whether tlic writer has anj' prf.ci.icHl km-w- 
ledge of niauring in Ceylon, or cti the <-<>n<iitioim 
that obtain in the planting districis. 
While it would lie a pity if any leally valuable 
theories were lost to the planting commtinity, it 
would enuilly be a matter of icgret if any con- 
siderable section were leil astray by Mr. itaur'a 
somewhat specious arguments. 
In the face of the ('xjiei intents conducted by 
eminent scientists on the Continent, no one would 
be prepared to deny that miero-organisnin iiicrease 
the natural sources of nitrogen ; but consi<lcr what 
are tlie actual ascerlained facts disclo>ed by Mr. 
Baur and upon which he builds hie whole tlieory 
of manuring 
Experiniciils carried on at a " ]>"rencli Agricul- 
tural, Station'' rieiiionstrated that in a temperate 
climate t!ie i|uantity of so uble nitrate was least 
in winter anr! most in autumn ; hut the.se facts 
are of little value to us in Cejlon where the 
Climatic conditions are altogether different. 
Even assuming that Mr. Hiinr i.s right in answer- 
ing in the negative his own question that " the 
production of nitrates in onr soils during the year is 
inferior to that at homo," does it necessarily follow 
that the nitrates formed remain in onr soil ? 
As one of the functions of the micro organism, 
we are informed, is to convert atnios])horic nitro- 
gen, its habitat must be on the surface and the 
nitrates it produces beside it. What then be- 
comes of the micro-organism wlien a heavy shower 
of rain falls and waslies away the surface soil? 
It is much to be feared that this uselu! little 
creature an<! all his works are deposited in the 
nearest drain ! 
But most people w ill not be disposed to waste 
muQli sympathy on micro-organisms, until actual 
