384 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[De:. 1, 1898. 
Method op Planting.— The number of coffee trees 
planted per hectare (2i acres) in Colombia averaged 
about 1,500. The general average yield per tn-e 
per annum on well-kept plantations U Vt lb., or 
2,250 lb. per hectare-900 lb. per acre. On many other 
plantations the average yearly crop does not exceed 
1 lb. per tree— 600 lb. per acre. Thus the number 
of trees planted per acre in this country strikingly 
contrasts with the number planted in British Colonies, 
where twice as many are planted per acre, notwith- 
standing heavier crop? are secured in Colombia. 
In the palmy days coffee cultivation in Ceylon the 
average was 5 cvvt. per acre. 
Shade.— Ooe of the chief element'! of success ap- 
pertaining to this cultivation in Colombia must be 
foEsigned to the systematic inter-planting of shade- 
trees with the coffee. At altitudes rangine from 
3,000 to 5,000 feet more densely-foliaged shade-trees 
are employed than is the case at plantations between 
5,000 and 6,000 feet, where a slender shade is afforded 
by a species of Cassia. The shade-trees utilised at 
plantations situated between 3,C00 and 5,000_ feet 
are a species of Jt'n/tJn ina, and another legaminous 
tree, a species of Iiiga, which latter is becoming 
very generally adopted by planters. Some people 
strongly recommend this Iiir/a for adoption by 
British colonial coffee planters, as it is most ad- 
mirably adopted for the purpose. It grows rapidly, 
and the large compound leaves full abundantly at 
the season in which the plantation requires the 
least degree of shade, whilst the abnndanoe of fallen 
leaves from this tree check in a very marked manner 
the irrepressible growth of weeds. Moreover the 
general result of the beneficial, influence of this 
congenial shade reduces to a minimum all cultural 
expenses; indeed, it may be safely computed that 
the good offices of this tree curtail the cost of actual 
cultivation to the extent of some 50 per cent, as 
compared with coffee devoid of shade. It is a re- 
markable fact that British colonial coffee planters 
have in the main ignored the application of shade 
to the coffee tree. Without shade the tree certainly 
flourishes, but its full exposure to the sun, at any 
rate as the sun is wont to shine here, is determental 
in the long run to its most congenial state of pro- 
ductiveness. However, near the upper limit of the 
cultivation, namely from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, shade 
is not to be recommended. 
From the foregoing it will be seen that Colombia 
is making rapid strides in coffee cultivation and the 
strides are so remarkable that it already produces 
about two-thirds as much coffee as all British Colo- 
nies and possessions combined. 
On the whole, after a careful consideration of the 
coffee production of the world, one comes to the 
conclusion that there is a downward tendency in 
prices, and that the quantity thrown on the market 
is very considerably increased from year to year. 
There is no means of finding out whether the number 
of consumers increases in the same ratio, because 
the humble customers of retail dealers are beyond 
the scope of Government returns. It is clear, how- 
ever, that there is either an increase in the number 
of consumers or that the consumers use more than 
they formerly did, — both amounting to the same 
thing, v"z, the absorption of the quantity produced. 
The fall in price however refers to the medium 
qualities, and cannot affect the coffee planters of 
the Shire Highlands whose aim is to produce the 
very best of coSee— British Centra Africa Gazette. 
♦ 
One Way to Advertise Tea.— The United - 
KinKflorn Tea Company (Limited) thus place their 
wares bel'oie the British public :— 
The Revolutionizers of the Tea Trade. Tea Mer- 
chants to H.B.H. the Prince of Wales. Tea Mer- 
chants to the House of Commons. Tea Merchants 
to upwards of 1,000 Hotels. Superb Tea ! Direct 
from the Growers. The best that money can buy. 
At prices effecting an immense saving. Write for 
samples. 
GUATEMALA COFFEE. 
A report on the trade and finance of Gaatemala, 
by Mr. Consul C.H.M Trayner, received at the 
British Foreigh Office in June, and partly printed 
in the London Grocer, states that the year 1897 wae 
an unsalibfactory one in Guatemala from a commer- 
cial point of view. The export of coffee — the sole 
fsrm of wealth which the country poaseeses— did indeed 
increase, but the price obtained abroad had dimi- 
nished in a much t<reater degree, and althcagh some- 
thing like 130,000 quintals more were exported, 
the receipts were less by about $-1,000,000 gold than 
during the preceding year. The tropical situation 
of the country, the proximity of every portion to 
the sea on both coasts, the diversity of aliitnde and 
consequently of temperature combine to make the 
agricultural capabilities of Guatemala equal to any 
in the world. Every kind of crop, from those of 
the tropical coast regions to those of the cold high- 
lands (the latter having a climate corieepoaaiDg 
with that of Northern Europe in summer), may be 
raised. There are districts where even four crops 
of maize are obtained in one year. At the present 
time the cultivation of coffee absorbs the attention 
of almost all the landowners, for until the past 
year the high price at which Gaatemala coffee was 
quoted abroad, stimulated the planting of many 
large coffee plantations. The principal districts of 
the coffee-growing industry are found in the de- 
partments of Quezaltenaugo, San Marcos, Cbimal- 
tenango, Santa Rosa, Retalhulen, Escuintla, Zacapa 
and Alta Vera Paz. The conditions essential for the 
growth of coffee are, in this latitude, an altitude of 
from 2, COO feet to 4,500 feet above the sea level, a 
considerable depth of vegetable soil and a clay sub- 
soil. Lauds of this description are found in almost 
every department of the Republic. The coffee tree 
is easily cultivated. The yonng trees are planted 
iu little pits about fifty centimF, deep, and at a 
distance of about IJ metres from each other. 
Every three months the plantation needs thinning 
out, and the first harvest is obtained the third or 
fourth year after planting the trees. The cost of a 
coffee plantation and the profits which it yields are 
not easy to state accurately, and are estimated very 
differently by different persons. There has not been 
much change in the cost of raising coffee or its 
yields in the last twenty years. On March 21 of 
this year (1898) a petition on behalf of the coffee 
planters was presented to the National Assembly 
asking that the export dues on this product (about 
§3,650 per quintal) be abolished, pointing out that 
the low price of eoffee now current abroad makes 
it impossible to compete with Brazilian and other 
foreign coffee, and that as the contract assigning a 
certain portion of this tax to the Northern Railroad 
lapses in May, neither government nor railroad 
would lose by such a measure, as it had practically 
been determined to sell the concession for the new 
part of the railroad, along with the part already 
ljuilt to foreign contractors. The result has been 
that a decree has recently been issued lowering the 
export tax on coffee to $1 silver per quintal. — 
American Grocer. 
A " Cokxer" ikFeuit. — Whence comes all the fruit 
now meeting with so ready a sale in London streets, 
and at so cheap a rate ? Every urchin with a half- 
penny or a penny to spare can regale himself with 
wholesome fruit from the Continent, Spain, America, 
or from English Orchards. There is just now a 
little "corner" in the Farringdon Road, between 
the Metropolitan Railway-station and the Corpor- 
ation Fruit and Fish Market, where Covent Garden 
is represented in miniature. It is a great place 
for youngsters. Plums sell here at from lid. to 
4d. per lb., Pears at Id. to 4d., Apples Id. to 3d., 
Oranges at two for IJrf., English Grapes may be 
had from 8d. per lb., and foreign Grapes from 3d. 
to 6d. per lb. ; Bananas meet a ready sale at Id. each, 
or seven for 6d. ; fine Damsons are sold from 2d. per 
lb. If some vegetables are scarce or dear, there is an 
abundance of wholesome ti-mt.^Gard€7ie)-s' Chronicle, 
