402 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURlSf. 
[Dec.  I,  i8g6 
fiooil  to  any  important  extent.  In  the  lirsi  place 
so  few  of  our  Plantation  I'ompanie.s  as  yet  have 
any  considerable  reserve  funds.  The}’  are  mostly 
very  younyf,  and,  tliough  )iros|H?r«)us,  have  only 
Ijej^un  to  think  about  •‘reserve>.”  Put  in  tlie 
ca.se  of  the  leading  ;ts  of  the  ohlest  of  our 
Tea  Companies,  we  are  under  the  impression  that 
the  shareholders  have  liad  very  full  and  satisfac- 
tory information  as  to  the  investment  of  a cou- 
siderahle  reserve,  namely  in  coconut  plantation 
to  a certain  amount  ami  tlie  balance  in  Covcrn- 
luent  securities.  If  tliis  information  is  not  given 
in  the  latest  Annual  Report,  we  feel  sure  it  w:is 
supplied  at  the  meetinsr  in  the  speech  of  tlie 
Managing  Director.  Indeed,  is  this  not  the  usinal 
way  of  supplying  information  in  reference  to  re- 
serve tuuds  or  securities,  or,  when  not  done, 
ipiestions  can  always  be  asked  by  shareholders 
at  the  meeting.  Further,  are  we  wrong  in  sup- 
posing that  where  no  speeial  investment  is  men- 
tioned, it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  any 
reserve  funds  are,  .a.s  a rule,  invested  in  (lovern- 
ment,  Indian  or  Colonial  liist-class  securities? 
Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  now  that  the  time 
has  come  when  we  hope  “ reserves ’’  will  become 
the  rule  with  all  well-regulated  Ceylon  Tea 
Plantation  Companies,  we  think  our  friend’s 
criticism  or  suggestions  may  well  lie  taken  to 
heart  and  the  practice  be  adopted  by  Directors 
of  taking  their  shareholders  fully  into  their  con- 
fidence, as  to  the  use  made  of  the  profits  placed 
in  reserve — as  a guarantee  for  the  maintenance 
of  prosperity.  It  is  certainly  indispensable,  that 
sucli  “gunrantee”  should,  in  its  investment,  be, 
like  Cicsar’s  M’ife,  above  suspicion,  and  there  is 
nothing  like  publicity  to  secure  this  end. 
— — 
LIFE  l.\  GUATEMALA. 
THE  COFFEE  PL.VNTAITON.S  : PEOX  I.AnOUU  : 
THE  MODERN’  SY.STEM  OF  CUETUHE. 
The  fact  that  a co-operative  colony,  to  be  composed 
of  young  Californians,  has  been  proposed  to  be 
started  in  Guatemala — the  most  northern  of  the 
Ceniral  American  republics — has  directed  attention  to 
the  existence  and  social  conditions  of  the  colony. 
Guatemala  is  not  a bad  land  to  live  in,  especially 
in  the  elevated  region  devoted  to  the  culture  of  the 
coffee  plant.  But  the  truth  of  the  matter  is  that 
while  the  climate  of  the  region  is  delightful  and  by 
no  means  insalubrious  there  are  drawbacks  (says  a 
Californian  paper)  which,  from  an  American  point 
of  view,  are  serious  obstacles. 
No  one  who  has  travelled  in  any  part  of  Spanish 
America  from  Mexico  to  Patagonia  can  have  failed 
to  recognise  and  record  one  bitter  fact.  The  man 
who  goes  into  any  Spanish-Americaii  state  to  till  the 
soil  or  to  labor  with  his  hands  has  no  social  future, 
fie  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a peon,  a laborer. 
The  Spanish  traditions  have  not  been  rooted  in 
the  institutions  of  Central  America  for  nothing. 
There  was  a time  when  the  Archbishop  of  Guatemala 
was  primate  of  all  North  America-  There  ate  families 
in  Guatemala  who  can  trace  back  their  pedigree  for 
a clear  300  years,  and  though  Guatemala  is  nomi- 
nally a republic  the  American  citizen  who  takes 
his  capital  into  the  country  and  toils  with  his  hands 
to  amass  a competence  will  find  the  doors  of 
Guatemala  society  hopelessly  shut  against  him. 
The  politi  ian  proper  reuch''s  hi-;  highest  develop- 
ment in  lands  where  wealth  and  aristocratic  tradi- 
tions go  hand  in  hand.  In  the  higher  circles  of 
society  in  Guatemala,  Nicaragua,  Salvador,  Honduras, 
and  Colombia  nearly  every  brainy  man  is  a pro- 
fessional politician. 
“Tho  land  of  Manana”  (pronounced  Man  .'.in-na) 
is  a country  in  which  nothing  i.s  huriiod.  Fjvery- 
thing  can  be  put  off  till  to-morrow.  It  takes  time 
to  think,  and  nothing  is  so  repugnant  to  Spanish 
American  traditions  as  the  feverish  haste  of  the 
New  Englander  or  the  business  energy  of  the 
Western  man. 
It  is  a characteristic  of  all  tho  representative  men 
of  Central  America  that  they  absolutely  refuse  to 
bo  harried.  Tlioy  never  jump  at  a bargain,  and 
their  business  transactions  are  marked  by  a provok- 
ing coolness  of  deliberation  strangely  at  variance 
with  their  warmth  and  eitergy  in  the  seolndcd  virclc 
of  social  life. 
.\  word  about  the  coffee  j>lantations  of  Guatmnala 
may  be  in  order  after  this  introduction. 
These  plantations  lie  on  the  Pacific  slope  of  the 
country,  at  a distance  from  the  coast  var}  ing  from 
■10  to  UK)  miles,  and  at  an  elevation  ranging  from 
4,tXX)  to  .o,000  feet. 
There  is  very  little  railroad  communication  and 
transportation  is  mostly  conducted  by  the  most  pri- 
initive  means. 
The  present  coffee-planters  of  Guatemala  are  of  all 
n.ationalities — Engiisn,  .Vmericans,  (iermans,  and 
Spanish-Ainericaus.  Many  of  tho  old  colTee-plantoi-s 
began  life  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  scheme  pro- 
posed by  tho  would-be  colonists.  They  lived  in 
adobe  dwellings  and  toiled  hard  to  drill  the  refrac- 
tory peons  into  tho  svork  of  clearing  the  plantations. 
The  successful  coffee-planter  of  today  toils  hard,  not 
as  a labourer,  but  as  an  ovei’seer.  For  a man  to  pul 
hi?  baud  to  the  plough  would  have  tlie  same  social 
effect  in  Gn.itemala  as  in  the  Southern  States  during 
the  era  of  slavery. 
The  modern  system  of  coffee  culture  in 
Guatemala,  and  especially  the  introduction 
of  machinery,  and  the  gradual  enlargement 
of  the  coffee  area,  have  devolved  upon  the 
planters  the  necessity  of  supplying  suitable  houses 
for  their  laborers  in  place  of  the  old  thatchod  shan- 
ties or  adobe  huts  in  which  these  miserable  crea- 
tures existed.  The  lumber  for  theso  buildings  is  all 
imported  from  San  Francisco,  and  tho  wooden  dwell- 
ing of  the  planters  are  constructed  on  a larger  scale 
of  the  same  material.  Lumber  is  an  expensive  ma- 
terial in  Guatemala,  and  hence  a heavy  drain  is 
made  on  capital  at  tho  start. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  a coffee  trust  in 
Guatemala.  Every  man  runs  his  own  coffee  ranch 
as  he  pleases.  When  he  wants  money  he  borrows 
it  on  the  security  of  his  next  coffee  crop  from  the 
agents  of  bankers  in  Europe,  San  Francisco,  and  New 
York. 
Life  on  a coffee  ranch  is  not  unhealthy,  but  no 
white  man  could  perform  tho  work  which  tlie  jieons 
accomplish  in  clearing  a plantation.  Tlie  first  clear- 
ing is  a herculean  task,  and  after  that  the  rapid 
and  prodigal  growth  of  weeds  and  rank  vegetation  in 
a tropical  climate  requires  tliat  the  work  of  clear- 
ing shall  be  kept  up  incessantly.  It  is  the  liardest 
kind  of  work  under  the  most  favorable  conditions. 
There  is  no  cleau‘d  land  available  at  tho  present  time 
for  one  reason  that  it  would  require  so  heavy  an 
outlay  of  capital  to  accomplish  tho  task,  and  a 
coffee  plantation  left  alone  for  one  single  month  will 
be  so  overgrown  as  to  require  as  thorough  a clear- 
ing as  the  original  one. 
The  coffee  plant  is  about  five  mouths  in  dove- 
lopement  up  to  the  ripening  of  the  berry,  hut 
it  is  five  years  before  the  plantation  begins  to  pay. 
A certain  number  of  a-ues  of  land  «re  cleared  by 
contract  labour  at  about 30c.  a day  ia  American  money, 
though  the  planters  keep  liie  figure  a secret! 
After  the  ground  is  thoroughly  cleared  and  the  coffee 
planted  it  will  not  be  till  the  third  year  that  there 
is  any  return  at  all.  In  the  third  year  there  is  a 
slight  return,  just  enough  to  pay  for  tlie  cleaning  of 
the  coffee-bean.  In  the  lomtii  year  tlie  crop  about 
pays  for  sacking  and  getting  it  to  tlie  port  of  ship- 
ment. ^ 
Fioin  the  fifth  year  onward,  if  the  sensons  aro 
good,  there  are  sustantial  profits,  provided  labour  is 
obtaiiitble  at  a cheap  rate;  for  on  coffee  planta- 
tions cheaji  liibouris  every Ibing,  and  tlie  peons ciiii 
be  very  refractory  at  times.  N.iUiio  is  so  pro.iigal 
in  providing  fruits  for  food  and  so  liUlo  is  rei|iiired 
-in  the  way  of  clotliiiig  or  shelter  that  if  a peon 
