Coffee plantation

“ He showed us the coffee plants, the broad platforms with smooth surfaces of cement and raised borders, where the berries were dried in the sun, and the mills where the negroes were at work separating the kernel from the pulp in which it is inclosed.
"These coffee estates," said he, "are already ruined, and the planters are abandoning them as fast as they can; in four years more there will not be a single coffee plantation on the island. They can not afford to raise coffee for the price they get in the market." ”

“ The mode of forming a coffee-plantation is simply to go into the woods (where the tree abounds) , select the wild coffee tree, and transport it into the prepared field. The indigenous coffee-tree of Liberia produces fruit of a superior quality, larger and finer flavored, than that of the West Indies. But the cultivation, I think, is conducted upon wrong principles. Instead of having large plantations, with no other vegetables on the land, let every man intermingle a few coffee trees with the corn, cassada, and other vegetables in his garden or fields. ”

“ A coffee plantation is one of the most pleasing tropical sights the eye can rest upon, where twenty-five or thirty acres of level soil are planted thickly with the deep green shrub, divided into straight lines, which obtains the needed shade from graceful palms, interspersed with bananas, orange and mango trees. Coffee will not thrive without partial protection from the ardor of the sun in the low latitudes, and therefore a certain number of shade and fruit trees are introduced among the low-growing plants. ”

“ A thriving coffee plantation is a very pretty sight; the rounded, regular outline of the shrubs gives a tufted look to the hillside on which they grow, and their glittering foliage contrasts strikingly at this season with their bright red berries. One often passes coffee plantations, however, which look ragged and thin ”

“ The next sugar plantation we visited was near Matanzas; but although I saw several other sugar estates, they did not particularly interest me, as they were, though perhaps on a larger scale, almost exactly like the first we had inspected. I was, however, delighted with my first coffee plantation: I shall not easily forget its fresh beauty and delightful odour. The coffee berry was introduced into Cuba from Hayti, in 1742, and has flourished greatly, but the trade has of late considerably diminished in importance. Nothing can exceed the beauty of a coffee field. ”

“ In the British islands every coffee plantation is arranged with the greatest exactitude. The lands are divided into fields as nearly equal as possible, and in those fields, in all probability, the coffee has been planted in successive seasons, so that when the period arrives in which the trees begin to exhibit a decline in their growth, the planter provides for the loss of them by planting others, and by this expedient manages always to keep up his crop. ”

“ Like most of the sugar estates, it is no longer the regular home of its proprietors.
The change from coffee plantations to sugar plantations—from the cafetal to the ingenio, has seriously affected the social, as it has the economic condition of Cuba.
Coffee must grow under shade. Consequently the coffee estate was, in the first place, a plantation of trees, and by the hundred acres. Economy and taste led the planters, who were chiefly the French refugees from Santo Domingo to select fruit trees, and trees valuable for their wood, as well as pleasing for their beauty and shade. ”

“ Still there are several hundred coffee plantations, supplying the local demand, and the business is profitable. The eastern end of the Island is the coffee-producing section, and 14,048,490 pounds were raised in the province of Santiago de Cuba in 1890-1896. Shipments to Spain in 1891-1895 aggregated $322,266. There is no prettier sight than a coffee plantation. ”

“ A coffee plantation has not the breadth of the platanaras, the fields of towering bananas; but it needs shade, and large oaks are left distributed through it which accomplish this purpose. If left to the sun wholly it yields large crops at first, then dies. The coffee plant should bear after the fourth or fifth year, and yield a half-pound yearly for fifty or sixty years. ”

“ The coffee plantation furnishes occupation for entire families. Men, women, and children bring equal zeal to bear upon the task of weeding, which has to be repeated five or six times a year. The prolific Italian reaps an advantage from the size of his family. Moreover, plots of land are set apart for him, on which he raises [Pg 397] forage for his cattle and the maize, manioc, and black beans on which he lives. ”

“ Every winter yields one pound of coffee to each tree, and every summer about half as much. The trees are planted some four feet apart, or 1000 to the acre. The cost of clearing and planting a coffee plantation is estimated at $100 per acre. Nothing can be more charming than a fine coffee plantation. They are always on the mountain slopes, in the midst of a beautiful scenery and delightful climate. The trees grow ten feet high, and their dark, evergreen foliage mantles the entire surface of the plantation. ”

“ He now owns a coffee plantation, on which there are one hundred and ten apprentices, and is also attorney for several others, the owners of which reside out of the island.
2. His plantation is well cultivated and clean, and his people are as industrious and civil as they ever were. He employs them during their own time, and always finds them willing to work for him, unless their own grounds require their attendance. Cultivation generally, through the island, is as good as it ever was. Many of the planters, at the commencement of the apprenticeship, reduced the quantity of land cultivated ”

“ Coffee Growing Under Shade, Porto Rico
Preparing the Plantation. Before transplanting time has come, the plantation itself has been made ready to receive the young plants. Coffee plantations are generally laid out on heavily wooded and sloping lands, most often in forests on mountainsides and plateaus, where there is an abundance of water, of which large quantities are used in cultivating the trees and in preparing the coffee beans for market. ”

“ Venezuela's plantation-working forces are largely natives of Indian descent and negroes, some of them coming during harvesting season from adjoining Colombia and returning there after the picking is done. The resident workers labor under a sort of peonage system which is tacitly recognized by both employee and employer, although no laws of peonage or slavery have ever existed in Venezuela. Under this system, the laborers live in little colonies scattered over the haciendas, as the coffee plantations are called in Venezuela. Company stores keep them supplied with all their wants. ”

“ The complaints are few and of a very trivial nature. They mostly originate with the planters. Most of the cases brought before him are for petty theft and absence from work.
In his district, cultivation was never better. The negroes are willing to work during their own time. His father-in-law is clearing up some mountain land for a coffee plantation, by the labor of apprentices from neighboring estates. The seasons since emancipation have been bad. The blacks cultivate their own grounds on their half Fridays and Saturdays, unless they can obtain employment from others. ”

“ At night they all present their tickets and are paid on the spot for any extra work. From the harvesting-ground we followed the carts down to the place where their burden is deposited. On their return from the plantation the negroes divide the day’s harvest, and dispose it in little mounds on the drying-ground. When pretty equally dried, the coffee is spread out in thin even layers over the whole enclosure, where it is baked for the last time. It is then hulled by a very simple machine in use on almost all the fazendas, and the process is complete. ”

“ Does this proud representative of Flora's [Pg 146] kingdom, like humanity, require a northern and invigorating atmosphere to inspire its greatest fragrance and best qualities? Coffee plantations are most numerous inland, though they have lately developed a serious blight which has reduced the production at least fifty per cent., causing many to abandon the cultivation of the berry. It is not, like the cinnamon, indigenous to Ceylon, but was introduced here from the main-land. Unless this serious scourge can be overcome, coffee, as an export from the island, will very soon cease. ”

“ Picking Costa Rica Coffee
Planting was begun on the flat land of the plains, but the trees did not thrive. Then the cultivation was extended to the hills in southern India, especially in Mysore, where better success was achieved. The first systematic plantation was established in 1840. For the most part, the production has always been confined to southern India in the elevated region near the southwestern coast. The coffee district comprises the landward slopes of the Western Ghats, from Kanara to Travancore. ”

“ Formerly many of the coffee plantations were worked by slaves. Negroes were brought from South Africa, as they were brought to work in the cotton fields in the south in anti-slavery days. In the year 1888 Brazil freed her slaves and the sudden freeing of a half million slaves almost demoralized the coffee and sugar industries of the country. Many of these negroes thought that freedom meant that they would never have to work any more and they became loafers and often criminals. ”

“ A well conducted plantation will have its own cattle to assist in conveying the crop to Kandy; it will have roomy and dry cattle-pens, fields of guinea-grass, and pasture grounds attached, as well as a manure-pit, into which all refuse and the husks of the coffee are thrown, to be afterward turned to valuable account.
The carriage of coffee into Kandy is performed by pack-bullocks, and sometimes by the coolies, who carry it on their heads, but these latter can seldom be employed away from picking during the crop time. ”

“ Then losses often occur from want of attention to the order in which the various works should be carried out, and which should be influenced by the aspect and the kinds of soil on the plantation. Even if all the work of the plantation could be finished with ease and certainty, it is important to observe the proper order, as to do so is most beneficial to the coffee, and then it should be considered that, should labour from some accident run short, it will at least be certain that the most important parts of the plantation will have been attended to. ”

“ I was anxious to ascertain the annual quantity of coffee which this place produced, and I was told that it did not exceed four thousand five hundred pounds weight. I have mentioned this plantation because it is considered to be a settlement in a productive part of the country, the mountains of Leogane; and extraordinary as it may appear, it is a very good illustration of the coffee settlements in general, all of which exhibit negligence and want of that industry which characterize the Haytian planter and cultivator. ”

“ Nor need he be afraid of putting down too much, for it is easily removed if this is done when the trees are small, and then it must also be remembered that, as the plantation ages, both coffee and soil call for more shade, as the growing power of the land, and its ability to keep the trees fresh and green, naturally diminishes with the advance of time. ”

“ The labour required for the cultivation of coffee is exceedingly light: I was therefore much surprised to see the very little progress the people had made in this branch of agriculture. When an individual, who has been accustomed to plantations in the British, French, and Spanish islands, visits the coffee plantations in Hayti, and observes the whole conducted without judgment or care, it impresses him with a most unfavourable idea of the people; and when he sees the easiest branch of agriculture so much neglected, it convinces him that their idleness is almost invincible. ”

“ I think the slaves felt the deprivation less than the whites, because the usual diet for slaves was corn bread and pork, and these could be raised on the plantation; but coffee, tea, sugar, and other articles which the whites had been accustomed to use could not be raised on the plantation, and the conditions brought about by the war frequently made it impossible to secure these things. The whites were often in great straits. Parched corn was used for coffee, and a kind of black molasses was used instead of sugar. Many times nothing was used to sweeten the so-called tea and coffee. ”

“ The ordinary roads in the coffee plantations, like the mule-tracks all over the country, are carried straight up the sides of the hills between the lines of shrubs, gullied by every rain, and offering, besides, so steep an ascent that even with eight or ten oxen it is often impossible to drive the clumsy, old-fashioned carts up the slope, and the negroes are obliged to bring a great part of the harvest down on their heads. ”

“ In 27 districts there are 404 coffee plantations, covering a surface of 80,950 acres, of which, however, only 63,771 acres are really productive. These produced last year, 347,100 cwt., or 51⁄2 centners per acre. To this must be added the quantity under cultivation by the natives, who possess about 36,000 acres of coffee plantations, and in the year 1859 alone, exported 180,000 cwt. ”