59^ 
THB  TKOl’IC  VL  AGKlCaL  Ta R.IS  I' 
I March  r,  1897. 
tineiit.  This  is  clue  to  the  increasing  activity 
shown  in  pushing  trade  by  the  planting  commu- 
nity and  by  the  Mincing  Lane  traders.  While  un- 
doubtedly the  risks  attending  on  a tea-planting 
business  are  great,  there  is  this  point  to  be 
noted — that  the  sales  of  the  produce  are  not  regu- 
lated by  speculative  market  conditions  to  anything 
like  the  same  extent  as  prevails  with  regard  to 
nearly  every  other  class  of  produce.  It  is,  we 
believe,  the  fact  that  seventy  to  eighty  per 
cent,  of  the  tea  grown  is  shipped  home  to  be 
sold  at  current  market  prices  on  account  of  the 
I>roducer,  whether  that  producer  be  a private  person 
or  a public  compaii}'.  There  is  no  organised  specula- 
tive maikct  such  as  exists  with  regard  to  wheat,  for 
instance.  To  all  intents,  we  may  say  that  the  pro- 
duce is  sold  by  auction.  It  is  not  held  up  at  a price 
to  prohibit  or  curtail  the  normal  demands  of 
customers.  There  is  another  check  to  overproduc- 
tion in  the  limited  supply  of  laaour.  The  coolies 
gravitate  to  the  old-established  ireld-^,  because, 
amongst  other  things,  there  is  on  htese  much  less 
danger  of  fever  and  other  diseases  arising  from  the 
miasma  so  prevalent  in  the  jungle  until  an  estate  has 
been  opened  up  Consequently,  competitors  to  those 
old-established  companies  are  handicapped  by  the 
difficult}'  of  getting  suitable  labour.  In  various  parts 
of  the  world  attempts  have  been  made  to  compete 
with  Indian  and  Chinese  tea,  but  they  have  not 
come  to  anything;  beyond  that  comparatively  re- 
stricted tea-producing  districts  in  Central  Ceylon,  no 
other  substantial  production  threatens,  unless, 
perhaps  from  Java,  whose  produce  goes  almost  en- 
tirely to  Holland.  Attempts  have  been  made  in 
Natal  to  grow  tea,  and  these  may  ultimately 
come  to  something.  But  even  so,  all  that  she 
could  produce  would  be  absorbed  in  South  Africa 
itself,  and  the  chief  markets  of  the  world 
would  still  be  left  to  the  Eastern  tea-producers.  In 
Virginia,  in  the  Caucasus,  and  latterly  in  Brazil, 
efforts  at  tea-growing  have  been  made,  but  the  re- 
sults have  not  been  such  as  to  cause  alarm  to  the 
Indian  toa-growars.  Taking  everything  into  considera- 
tion, therefore  including  the  large  yield  at  present 
obtainable,  Indian  tea  shares  promise  well  to  the  dis- 
creet investor  who  recognises  the  fact  that  the  pre- 
sent limitations  of  the  market  may  prevent  a 
sale  at  an  exact  moment.  He  must  lay  his  account 
for  ups  and  downs  in  prices,  but  the  market  in  tea 
shares  is  daily  becoming  more  free,  and  this,  as  also 
the  rise  in  prices  of  shares,  is  largely  attributable 
to  the  recent  consolidation  and  amalgamation  of 
companies  engaged  in  the  business.  There  are  fewer 
companies  now  than  a year  ago,  but  their  several 
capitals  being  larger,  their  shares  arc  more  readily 
marketable,  and  the  members  of  the  S.ock  Exchange 
who  deal  in  such  shares  are  in  close  touch  with  tlie 
outside  merchants,  who  devote  to  them  their  special 
attention. 
NEW  COFrEE  FIELDS  IN  COLUMBIA. 
1 have  the  honor  to  foiavard  an  account  of  the 
new  coffee  country  of  the  Sierra  Nevadas  of  Santa 
Marta.  It  has  been  found  that  coffee  does  well  in 
that  section,  and  large  tracts  of  land  are  being 
secured  for  plantations.  I am  indebted  to  William 
Crane,  Esq.,  an  Ameiican  now  g owing  coffee  in  the 
Sierras,  for  much  of  the  informalion. 
Until  two  or  three  years  ago,  the  Sierra  Nevada 
mountains,  whose  snow  crowned  summits  are  the  first 
to  meet  the  gaze  of  the  traveller  hitherward,  had  in- 
vited in  vain  the  explorer,  the  miner,  and  the  botanist; 
and  the  scanty  knowledge  of  them  gained  by  the 
Spaniards,  in  unsuccessful  attempts  to  subdue  their 
aboriginiil  inhabitants,  had  been  forgotten. 
At  last,  three  hundred  and  sixty  years  after  the 
settlement  of  Europeans  ui)on  these  shores,  the  in- 
habitants are  awakenirig  to  the  fact  that  at  their 
doors  lies  one  of  the  most-favored  districts  of  South 
America  for  the  cultivation  of  coffee. 
Eor  many  years,  coffee  has  been  grown  in  the 
interior  departments,  notably  Santander,  Cundina- 
marca,  the  Tolima,  and  its  export  from  these  depart- 
ments has  steadily  increased  for  fifteen  years,  but 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  getting  the  crop  to  tide 
water  or  to  a navigable  stream  have  been  a serious 
deterrent  to  a geneial  development  of  the  regions 
adapted  to  coffee  culture. 
The  cost  of  carriage  for  several  days’  journey  upon 
pack  mules  to  reach  the  Magdalena  river  or  some 
tributary,  navigible  only  by  rafts  or  canoes,  and 
the  loss  and  damage  suffered  in  transit,  have  made 
such  inroads  into  the  profits  that  would  otherwise 
result  from  its  production  that,  although  the  coffee 
is  of  a high  grade,  little  attention  was  paid  to  its 
cultivation  until  the  sudden  collapse  fo  the  market 
for  cinchona  bark  drew  the  attention  of  commerce 
to  coffee  as  the  most  available  article  of  exchange 
for  foreign  importations. 
Some  effort  has  been  made  toward  the  improve- 
ment of  transportation,  many  concessions  have  been 
granted  for  railway,  and  vast  sums  wasted  in  sub- 
sidies; but  no  considerable  betterment  is  noticeable 
in  the  means  of  laud  or  water  carriage  over  those 
of  a quarter  of  a century  ago. 
In  the  latter  years  of  the  last  century,  a single 
small  plantation  of  coffee  was  established  on  the 
northern  slope  of  the  foothills  of  the  Sierra  Nevada, 
but  was  abandoned  for  two  generations,  on  account 
of  the  low  prices  and  small  demand  for  coffee  of 
that  time.  This  and  a few  small  plantations  in  the 
lowlands  were  all  that  saved  the  e.utire  region  from 
being  an  unbroken  wilderness. 
The  favourable  reports  of  a few  lookers  about  who 
have  explored  this  range  or  rather  group,  of  moun- 
tains have  attracted  attention,  and,  latterly,  begin- 
nings have  been  made  upon  a dozen  or  more  plan- 
tations, chiefly  within  a radius  of  as  many  miles 
from  Santa  Marta. 
The  conditions  of  soil,  temperature,  rainfall,  and 
available  water  power  can  hardly  be  surpassed.  While 
the  greater  part  of  the  sectio.u  is  composed  of  slopes 
of  greater  or  less  stoepnes3,  little  of  it  is  so  steep 
as  to  be  unavailable  for  planting,  and  there  are 
frequent  intervals  anl  high  table-1  inds  of  consider- 
able extent. 
At  a height  of  2,500  ft.,  the  mean  temperature  is  70® 
F.,  80°  and  60°  being  themixituum  and  minimum 
throughout  the  year.  The  climate  is  salubrious,  and 
the  European  can  perform  a full  day’s  labor  without  un- 
due fatige.  All  the  vegetables  and  many  of  the  fruits 
of  the  temperate  zone  flourish.  Upon  the  northern 
and  north-western  slopes,  coffee  is  found  growing  wild 
in  considerable  tracts  of  the  forest. 
The  supply  of  young  plants  in  such  profusion  is  of 
great  vaue  in  the  making  of  a plantation,  shortening  by 
a year  or  more  the  time  which  would  otherwise  elapse 
before  a crop  could  be  produced. 
But  perhaps  the  most  important  advantage  which 
this  region  presents  is  its  nearness  to  the  excellent 
harbor  of  Santa  Msrta,  to  which  port  the  product  of 
plantations  can  be  carried  at  trifling  expense,  and  with 
no  risk  of  loss  or  damage.  Santa  Marta  is  a port  of 
call  for  several  lines  of  steamers,  besides  a regular 
trimonthly  service  of  fruit  steamers,  soon  to  be  made 
weekly. 
While  considerable  tracts  of  the  land  near  the  port 
have  been  taken  up,  there  still  are  hundreds  of  square 
miles  of  the  public  domain  well  adapted  for  coffee 
planting  ; and  ihe  land  laws  of  the  republic  are  very 
liberal,  offering  equal  conditions  to  native  and  foreign 
settlers. 
The  quality  of  coffee  grown  here  is  fully  equal  to  the 
best  grades  produced  in  the  country,  and  as  an  indica- 
tion of  the  duration  of  a plantation,  the  old  plantation 
before  mentioned  may  be  cited,  for,  although  no  care 
and  but  triflng  expense  have  been  bestowed  upon  it 
during  at  least  half  a century,  the  present  owner  still 
gathers  from  the  portions  not  smothered  entirely  by 
forest  growth,  enough  fruit  to  give  him  a profit  over 
maintenance  of  plant,  while  employing  only  the  most 
antiquated  and  crudest  methods  of  preparing  the  cron 
for  market.  ^ 
John  Bidlaki; 
Barranquilla,  June  5,  1860. 
—-JXiQ  Atictf,  Dec.  16, 
, Consul, 
