Coffee in Porto Rico.
The climate and soil and nearness to European and North American markets, the dense population and the short distances between the seaports and the mountain slopes on which the coffee is grown, adapt Porto Rico especially to this industry. The rugged mountainous topography which comprises three-fourths of the total area, makes the cultiva tion of other important crops than coffee almost impossible. As a result, coffee-growing has become the leading industry of the island, and the crop is grown in nearly every district. The best coffee is produced in the southwestern part. Formerly coffee was grown on the lowland, where it did well. The production of sugar, however, has driven most of it to the highlands. The high-water mark was reached in 1896, when 58,780,000 pounds, valued at $13,519,400, were exported. Most of this went to Europe. Spain takes a large share, and Austria, Hungary, Italy, France and Germany are good markets. United States takes very little of the output. The lower grades are shipped to Cuba or are sold for home consumption. The acreage in 1904 was reported as 183,541. The industry is not in so prosperous condition as it should be. The changed political relations of the is n 1, with the attendant effect on its commerce, the general decrease in the price of coffee on the market, and the destructive hurricane of 1899, from which many plantations have nut recovered, have all tended to depress the industry. The average production per acre had fallen in 1903 to 2:0 pounds. This could be increased to 1,000 pounds with improved methods. Selection for quality or yield has been little practiced, and the planting methods are careless. It is gratifying to note. however, that modern methods of cultiva tion are finding a place. A project for the estab lishment of a school for coffee-growers is under consideration by the government.
According to the census of 1899, the average size of coffee plantations was nine acres. A few have 1,000 acres and more. A considerable number have 100 to 1,000 acres, but the majority consist of less than 100 acres, even going so low as a fraction of an acre. The larger plantations, as a
rule, have their own population, who live in houses or huts provided for them by the plantation, free of rent. Usually they live in families, of which only the male members work in the fields, except in harvest time, when the entire family goes to pick coffee. This help may be supplemented, when necessary, by laborers from the smaller towns in the interior or by small proprietors. Full-grown laborers get thirty-five cents and boys ten cents and up for a day's work of about eleven hours. Much work, however, is done by contract, which nets the workers more. The quality of the labor is very satisfactory, and is mostly white.
Coffee in Hawaii.
Coffee has been cultivated in the Hawaiian islands for eighty years or more. The conditions for producing this crop are almost unexcelled. There are over 300,000 acres of land adapted both by soil and location to the production of a high grade product. The climate is equable, the tem perature seldom dropping below 50° or rising above 85'. Some experiments are being made with rubber trees as a coffee shade, and indications are that their success will materially add to the value of the coffee land in Hawaii. The low prices now paid for coffee, however, are discouraging new plantings. The annual production is about 3,000, 000 pounds. Yields of 750 pounds of marketable coffee per acre are secured in Kona and Hamakua on fields that receive proper attention. The coffees are mild, and of high flavor, and frequently sell above the average market prices. The bean is large and flat, resembling Javan rather than Brazilian coffees. All of the coffee produced in Hawaii is milled and graded before being sent to market. Practically no parchment is exported. The average cost of production is about nine and one-half cents per pound. The picking season in the Kona or lee ward districts runs from November to January, and in the windward districts from January to May. Fig. 353 is a Hawaiian coffee mill.