96 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Aug. 1 1901. 
year in most cases, the colon being worth 46^ 
cents American gold ; this means to larger estates 
where a clay's work is the way labor is em- 
ployed and paid for. In 1 he centre of the republic 
native labor is scarce only at certain times— In 
June when the maize-fields have to be cleaned, and 
in October when summer beans are planted, — the 
labourer prefers to work in these districts tor 
le?s wages than are paid on banana farms or in 
districts nearer the coast line. 
MANURING AND PRUNING UNKNOWN. 
As manuring may be considered almost an 
unknown feature, the same is true of trimming 
or pruning, it being almost impossible to follow 
the native farmer when at this kind of work, and 
establish a fixed idea, the tree in most parts being 
shuck, which becomes more scraggy in appear- 
ance as each succeeding crop is taken from it. 
There are ideas prevalent that the introduction 
of plantains and different kinds of shade trees 
are ot benefit to the plantation, the first being 
an article of food, and therefore the origin of 
the idea ; the latter, though planted with the object 
of giving shade to the coffee, is useful principally as 
a wind-break, during the dry months from Dec. 
to April, when the northerly winds are most violent, 
and also for firewood in some cases. Both how- 
ever have their disadvantages, as at all times 
the plantain needs constant care to see that the 
stalks do not fall on the coffee, to say nothitm 
of their being exhaustive of the fertility of the 
soil ; while the cutting of firewood is also attended 
with damage to the coffee tree 
One crop of coffee is hardly picked and sold, 
before the farmer begins to think of 
RAISING A LOAN 
on the coming one, and has immediate recourse 
to some curing station, where it has long been 
the custom to make these advances for the 
purpose of securing as much as possible of 
the craps. This transaction, barring some risk, 
gives most of its advantages to the money- 
lender whose rate of interest is often 1^ per cent 
a month, sometimes more ; capital and interest 
payable in coffee of stipulated good quality in 
fruit at current prices, the failure to deliver this 
incurs an additional fine of 20 per cent or more 
in.case cash is taken instead of cofifee ; a backer's 
signature and pledge is exacted in all cases. 
This borrowing in advance has sent many a poor 
farmer to the wall, legal prosecution often following 
the non-fulfilment of such agreements. 
Perhaps the most onerous of burdens laid on the 
farmer is the government 
EXPORT TAX 
which is levied when the cofifee is shipped out of the 
country ; it amounts to about one cent American 
gold per pound which means a considerable fraction 
of its value as prices are at present. No complaints 
are heard of, however on this point from tiie farmer, 
as it does not come from his pocket direct, but 
is paid by the exporter on whom he lays the 
blame of all reductions in his selling price. The 
daily papers often publish inflammatory articles 
in the same strain. When cofilee begins to ripen, 
everybody is on the alert in ascertaining prices 
paid in the neighbouring stations, to make 
sure of not having to sell at a lower price than 
is possible, and soon afterwards men, women and 
children are out with baskets and cloths, 
some picking from higher branches, others 
from lower branches and what is on the 
ground, and everything is delivered to the 
stations all of a rush, which puts some of the 
receivers into a squeeze to know how they can 
take care of it all. Picking is done in December 
on the lower levels of 2,500 and 3,000 on the 
Pacific slope, and in January on the upper levels 
of about 4,000 feet elevation. 
The disheartening effects of 
THE FALL IN PRICES 
of coffee are felt alike by farmers and pur- 
chasers, many manzanas being abandoned of 
late years, on account of low prices and small 
crops; the first is unavoidable; the second, 
however, seeins to have found a remedy in what 
few farms have practised, — chenncal manuring. 
Coffee manured thus by a brand of manure well, 
known in the London market yields 30 fane- 
gas to the manzana, of high quality (the fanega, 
equal to 4 hectolitres giving 116 lb. of cleaned cofifee), 
leaving clear profit of 300 colones upwards to 
the manzana. Taking coffee at its current 
price, as delivered in fruit, this cannot be 
called a low return, and is only an exceptional 
case on account of the use of manure. This 
being so, many owners of cofifee estates near 
the capital have realised similar returns from 
land that was supposed to be exhausted long 
ago. The introduction of manures into the 
country is free of duty, and obtains also 33 
per cent reduction in railroad freight. What is 
wanted, as Professor Voorhees expres<^es him- 
self in the prefice to his "First Principles of 
Agriculture," is the teaching of the use of 
manures in public schools according to practice 
and theory: every inhal»itant of the country 
could have a manzana of his own whose yield 
would not alter the markets of the world one 
single point. As it is, the farmer in despair has 
abandoned some or all of his coffee, and has 
devoted himself to sugar-cane and yucca, the 
produce of which has to be sold in the Republic, 
both of them following the downward drop in 
prices. Indeed, some are at their wits' end to 
know what to plant, and talk about leaving oflf 
pants anil taking to long shirts like the aborig- 
ines In the interior of the countrj' cofifee 
may be said to be the only exportable product, 
and this is the part of the country where the 
farmer will always live if he can. 
When coffee was at a good price, four 
and five years ago, several large lots of land 
were taken up on the Atlantic slope close 
to the railroad by capitalised firms, principally 
in the Turrialba and Juan Ninas districts: 
at elevations of 2,500 and 3000 feet. The climate, 
one of almost continuously daily rainfall all the 
year round, is not favourable to the development of 
a single uniform crop, as on the Pacific slope, 
but has to be picked two or three times a year. 
The price of labour is here fifty per cent and 
seventy-five per cent higher also ; and last, but not 
least, the quality of the produce after a few crops 
does not fetch such good prices as at the start, 
blights in the crops being often heard of. 
[There is no hope for coffee, we fear, until Brazil 
abates her enormous crops, larger this year than 
ever before. But has ou)r correspondent never 
seen " ciicao " in Costa Rica ? It is said to be the 
home of certain kinds and that the people cannot 
grow enough for local consumption, so keen is 
the demand in the towns. That then (Thedbroma 
Cacao— the cocoa or " chocolate " plant) ought to 
lie a profitable product in rich soil, though it can- 
not stand wind.— Ed. T.A.] 
