418 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ocr., 1901. 
picking of the coffee and the care of the plantation. Probably the first decrease 
in production will come from this reason. The planter whose shipping facilities 
are close to a railroad can, perhaps, make expenses at the above figures, but 
the one who must cart his product five or twenty-five miles to a railroad station 
must go to the wall. Of course, this applies with greater force to those 
planters in Mexico, Venezuela, and Columbia, who must put a couple of bags 
of coffee on a “ burro” and take anywhere from one day to five days’ journey 
before they can reach a shipping point. All of them are at présent losing 
money largely, and it is only a question of time when they must stop. 
On the other hand, those large plantations along the line of the Tehuan- 
tepec railroad in Mexico have a rate of freight of 50 cents per 100 lb. from the 
plantation to New York, as against 250 cents for the planter in Sao Paulo. 
These Tehuantepec plantations claim that they can put washed Oaxaca coffee 
in New York at a cost of 54 cents per lb. Now, suppose the Brazilian planter 
receives nothing at all for his coffee on the plantation. It still costs him 2} 
cents per lb. in New York in actual transportation expenses. It is probable 
that no one will dispute the statement that washed Oaxaca will always bring 
at least 83 cents per lb. more than the average Brazil coffee. Consequently, 
while the Brazilian was getting 23 cents per lb. for his coffee, which would alk; 
pay the transportation expenses, the Tehuantepec planter would obtain 54 cents 
or his coffee, at which price he could live, but not pay any dividends on his 
stock. There is no place in the world that can compete with him in coffee 
production, largely on account of his superior transportation facilities and the 
superior quality of his product. Moreover, he can also raise rubber, pine- 
apples, sugar, oranges, lemons, and other products which pay a profit to reduce 
the cost of coffee production. A rubber-tree shades his coffee-tree, and it costs 
him 5 cents per lb. to produce the rubber after the tree is matured. The rubber 
sells for 65 cents. A handsome profit, surely. 
Fortunately for the Brazilian, the area suitable for coffee planting in this 
region is limited, or the Brazilian would have harder competition than he ever 
had before. There is no doubt but that, were there area enough in Mexico 
along the line of this railway, all other coffee planters would be driven out of 
business, and no one in the world could compete with such plantations as the 
“oa Rios” and “ Uberos,” run by American capital on American business 
principles, with a stable government anda railway depot on the plantation 
itself. Moreover, they have two outlets—one by way of Coatzacoalcos to New 
York and Europe, and the other v@ Salina Cruz to San Francisco and the 
Pacific Coast. 
* * * * * 
The railways engaged here (Brazil) in this traffic nearly all earn handsome 
dividends of 12 to 14 per cent., and could, in Sao Paulo at least, probably reduce 
rates to half without losing money. On the other hand, coffee has been 
constantly carried to New York at 10 cents per bag without loss, and could be 
again, if necessary. So that, altogether, a reduction of carrying charges from 
112 to 60 or 70 cents per 100 lb. is by no means an impossibility. The method 
of estimating the cost of production followed by the correspondent of the 
Journal of Commerce is, however, misleading and arbitrary. Brazilian coffee is 
now selling in New York at little over 6 cents, or 3 cent under what he 
estimates to be the cost of delivery, and has before been sold at 5 cents, the 
price he estimated as the cost of delivery at Santos. In spite of such low 
_ prices, however, coffee does not cease to be produced nor to be shipped, which 
certainly would be the case had the price really fallen under the cost of delivery, 
At 5 or 6 cents per lb., coffee may not leave much profit to planters, but before 
Brazilian coffees could be driven from the markets there are wide margins yet 
to be reduced not only in the prime cost of production but of freight and 
handling. Should extensive cultivation prove too costly, it must be made 
intensive and labour replace planters as proprietors, as was the case with cotton 
in the Southern States. But, come what may, coffee will never cease to be 
profitably produced, because Brazil possesses an almost unlimited area and 
climate suitable for growing coffee such as no other country enjoys. 
