270 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Oct. 1, 1898. 
V ■ the Editor. 
COFFEE PLANTING IN MEXICO BY 
MR. R. E. PIN EO— OLD CEYLON 
MEN TIIEUE. 
(ialve«lon, Texas, 20tli July 1898. 
Dear Siu,— In view of the fact that many 
Ceylon Cofl'ee Planters are giving theii atten- 
tion to possibilities of profitable coffee cultiva- 
tion in Mexico, it may not be unintereftting to 
yourself and t« the readers of your valualile 
iournal to learn what the inipresssioiis of an Old 
*lanter, gathered during a siiort visit to that 
country, were and are. 
I entered Mexico at I'orforio Dias in the 
North and left it at Progrcs.so, \ucatan, in tlic 
Sonth. The counti y has a inogressive and able 
President, who gladly welcomes Foreign Investors, 
and it ia being opened up by lailroads, and its 
nearnees to the markets of ihc United Slates, 
gives it a pull over any other codee producing 
country. As a rule, the visitor to a coffee <Us- 
triet will find it a wilderness of coffee growing 
and being treated in precisely the .'ame manner 
SB the native coffee of Ceylon, with this differ- 
erence, hoA'ever, that in Mexico the Plan- 
tain Tree is vety extensively u^ed for shade, 
although, in niy opinion, no shade whatever is 
needed, which fact is just beginning to dawn on 
the progressive Mexican genlleinan. In many 
parts, the old Disc Pulper is to the front, but 
It has a solid metal tlriim and -the punch is cut 
in this metal, hence it is rigid with an ignorant 
person in charge much damage might be done. 
Cordoba and Oaxaca are among the most fa- 
voured and prolitable districts owing— partly— to 
superior climatic conditions and to transportation 
facilities, but many claim that Chiapas is the 
best country for coffee in the Kepublic, although 
it has its drawbacks in the absence of roads, and 
all coffee must be carried by river and jiack to 
Froutcra to be shipi)ed. The Isthmus of Tehuan- 
tepec is being boomed by land dealers as the 
favourite, and they will show you ))hotograplis 
of trees, twelve and fifteen feet in lieight, in proof 
of their claim. This district is better adapted to 
the cultivation of tobacco and sugar and these 
products should be very profitable— always pro- 
vided the labour supply is siitticient. At Cota- 
pec a Swiss gentleman has a modern, perfectly 
eijuiiiped coffee ])ulping and curing establishment, 
and he will take in your cherry and give you back 
clean coffee highly polished. He has splendid 
water power, two Ooidon pulpers, cisterns, dry- 
ing machine, winnowers, sizers and two polishing 
machines. The drying and polishing machines 
were patented in Guatemala. The matter that 
will confront the careful, cautious Investor is 
the labour problem, and I confess that it ap- 
pears difficult of solution. When you talk to the 
old resident about improved cultivation, he will 
tell you that it is an utter impossibility with the 
labour conditions as they are and always have 
been, and he will say that it is not certain that 
improved cultivation ia either desirable or even 
profitable, and he is determined to let things go 
on unchanged. One gentleman who had been in 
the country for upwards of twenty years and al- 
ways identihed with coffee told me, he intended 
putting ia a new clearing this year, that he would 
lant the trees veiy close, and, aft«r they ha<l 
orne for two or three years, he would thin them 
out ! 
About nddN\ay between Puebla and Oaxaca, the 
enterjuising American has htaited in for »>ffe« 
planting and already he is bejjinniiig t<> experience 
the tliflicully of finding »>aii.»factoiy lalioiir condi- 
tions. One gentleman told me that when he Ij^gan 
operations he secured labour at fifty Mexi;'an 
cents per day "ithout raiimiK, 'jut thiti he was then 
jjaying t-ixty mexicau cents and giving ralioria 
in aildilion. When will thi« thing end t If, 
with the small (juanlity of liiUour lequired iu 
the bes/inning, the rate has increased more than 
twenty per cent, what will it be when a large 
force is needed in the harvesting season ? Some 
advocate the enijiloyment of colored labour from 
the Southern States of the United Slateis rikI ti.e 
introiluclion of Clline^c fruiii Califoi nia, but they 
— apparently — have not taken into consideration 
the cost, and I am of ojiiuioa that this cla>it> of 
labour can never be secured at a rate that the 
coflee idauter can affoid to pay, nor that, if 
obtained, it would be sati^fact<:rv. The only 
soluli in to this labour jirobleui llial 1 can tn^igeist 
is, the importation of Jajiuncse. The Moatzo or 
jieasant is ofiener that not armed with a pistol 
which he i-i disposed to use on very hlight pro- 
vocation, and whei^ one i-ccs a train load of them 
going to a bull-fight fully aimed, it would appear 
that there was some good reason for it, although 
those be*t able to judge claim that the |jeasaut 
is harmless and inollensive. 1 met two prominent 
Mexican genllemen .ibout proceeding to their 
Hacienda, that hail lieen in posse^sioll of their 
family for generations and when I questioned 
them about tht^ir going uitued they baid it was 
absolutely necessarj'. 
The climatic conditions of certain portions of 
Mexico are favourable for the cnliivalion of coffee, 
and land can be secured at rcas-onablc pi icet*. but the 
investor has the labour question and low prices 
for the commodity starirg him in the face, and 
he would be a bold man imleed who would in- 
vest under existing conditions. 
I had not the privilege or pleasure of meet- 
ing my old friend, Forsyth (he assisted me for 
a short time on jvalnpahani), and I was, con- 
sequently, very greatly disajipoiuted. He was, 
I understood, engaged in erecting a plant on a 
plantation owned or jiartly owned by the Pre- 
sident (.f the Kepublic. Mr. Forsyth is held in 
high esteem by those who know him and is con- 
sidered the best authority on coffee in Mexico. 
Mr. Darley is in charge of a property on the 
Isthmus. The Isthmus is reached by a Mexican 
steamer leaving Vera Cruz for Coaxacolcos, from 
which i)oint there is a railway crossing to Salina 
Cruz and at both Termini ttie harbouis are to 
be greatly improved by means of breakwaters 
and jiiers. It is claimed that the Lthmus has an 
elevation of 1,200 feet, that coffee, rubber, to- 
bacco, cacao and sugar can be profitably cultivated 
and that it has iiianj' advantages over any other 
district in the Kepublic, but these claims 
are not verified by actual experience extending 
over a number of years, and I feel doubtful about 
cofl'ee proving a iiernianency there, although, as 
before stated, tobacco and sugar ought to do 
well. Vera Cruz is the great shipping port of 
the Kepublic, with Tampico trying hard for first 
place. The first-named place is a veritable death 
trap, owing to its vilely dircy and unsanitary 
condition, and it is the home of yellow fever, 
while lanipico can give it or any other placQ 
odds 00 mosr^uitoes and then gome out ahead, 
