Chapter 42
CATCH CROPS. On some plantations it has become the practise to grow catch crops between the rows of coffee trees, both as a means of obtaining additional revenue and to shade the young coffee plants. Corn, beans, cotton, peanuts, and similar plants are most generally used.
PESTS AND DISEASES. The coffee tree, its wood, foliage, and fruit, have their enemies, chief among which are insects, fungi, rodents (the "coffee rat"), birds, squirrels, and--according to Rossignon--elephants, buffalo, and native cattle, which have a special liking for the tender leaves of the coffee plant. Insects and fungi are the most bothersome pests on most plantations. Among the insects, the several varieties of borers are the princ.i.p.al foes, boring into the wood of the trunk and branches to lay _larvae_ which sap the life from the tree. There are scale insects whose excretion forms a black mold on the leaves and affects the nutrition by cutting off the sunlight. Numerous kinds of beetles, caterpillars, gra.s.shoppers, and crickets attack the coffee-tree leaves, the so-called "leaf-miner" being especially troublesome. The Mediterranean fruit fly deposits _larvae_ which destroy or lessen the worth of the coffee berry by tunneling within and eating the contents of the parchment. The coffee-berry beetle and its grub also live within the coffee berry.
Among the most destructive fungoid diseases is the so-called Ceylon leaf disease, which is caused by the _Hemileia vastatrix_, a fungus related to the wheat rust. It was this disease which ruined the coffee industry in Ceylon, where it first appeared in 1869, and since has been found in other coffee-producing regions of Asia and Africa. America has a similar disease, caused by the _Sphaerostilbe flavida_, that is equally destructive if not vigilantly guarded against. (See chapters XV and XVI.)
The coffee-tree roots also are subject to attack. There is the root disease, prevalent in all countries, and for which no cause has yet been definitely a.s.signed, although it has been determined that it is of a fungoid nature. Brazil, and some other American coffee-producing countries, have a serious disease caused by the eelworm, and for that reason called the eelworm disease.
Coffee planters combat pests and diseases princ.i.p.ally with sprays, as in other lines of advanced arboriculture. It is a constant battle, especially on the large commercial plantations, and const.i.tutes a large item on the expense sheet.
_Cultivation by Countries_
Coffee-cultivation methods vary somewhat in detail in the different producing countries. The foregoing description covers the underlying principles in practise throughout the world; while the following is intended to show the local variations in vogue in the princ.i.p.al countries of production, together with brief descriptions of the main producing districts, the alt.i.tudes, character of soil, climate, and other factors that are peculiar to each country. In general, they are considered in the order of their relative importance as producing countries.
BRAZIL. In Brazil, the Giant of South America, and the world's largest coffee producer, the methods of cultivation naturally have reached a high point of development, although the soil and the climate were not at first regarded as favorable. The year 1723 is generally accepted as the date of the introduction of the coffee plant into Brazil from French Guiana. Coffee planting was slow in developing, however, until 1732, when the governor of the states of Para and Maranhao urged its cultivation. Sixteen years later, there were 17,000 trees in Para. From that year on, slow but steady progress was made; and by 1770, an export trade had been begun from the port of Para to countries in Europe.
[Ill.u.s.tration: UP-TO-DATE WEEDING AND HARROWING, SO PAULO]
The spread of the industry began about this time. The coffee tree was introduced into the state of Rio de Janeiro in 1770. From there its cultivation was gradually extended into the states of So Paulo, Mins Geraes, Bahia, and Espirito Santo, which have become the great coffee-producing sections of Brazil. The cultivation of the plant did not become especially noteworthy until the third decade of the nineteenth century. Large crops were gathered in the season of 1842-43; and by the middle of the century, the plantations were producing annually more than 2,000,000 bags.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.
GENERAL VIEW OF FAZENDA DUMONT, RIBEIRAO PRETO, SO PAULO, BRAZIL]
Brazil's commercial coffee-growing region has an estimated area of approximately 1,158,000 square miles, and extends from the river Amazon to the southern border of the state of So Paulo, and from the Atlantic coast to the western boundary of the state of Matto Grosso. This area is larger than that section of the United States lying east of the Mississippi River, with Texas added. In every state of the republic, from Ceara in the north to Santa Catharina in the south, the coffee tree can be cultivated profitably; and is, in fact, more or less grown in every state, if only for domestic use. However, little attention is given to coffee-growing in the north, except in the state of Pernambuco, which has only about 1,500,000 trees, as compared, with the 764,000,000 trees of So Paulo in 1922.
The chief coffee-growing plantations in Brazil are situated on plateaus seldom less than 1,800 feet above sea-level, and ranging up to 4,000 feet. The mean annual temperature is approximately 70 F., ranging from a mean of 60.8 in winter
While coffee trees will grow in almost any part of Brazil, experience indicates that the two most fertile soils, the _terra roxa_ and the _ma.s.sape_, lie in the "coffee belts." The _terra roxa_ is a dark red earth, and is practically confined to So Paulo, and to it is due the predominant coffee productivity of that state. _Ma.s.sape_ is a yellow, dark red--or even black--soil, and occurs more or less contiguous to the _terra roxa_. With a covering of loose sand, it makes excellent coffee land.
Brazil planters follow the nursery-propagated method of planting, and cultivate, prune, and spray their trees liberally. Transplanting is done in the months from November to February.
Coffee-growing profits have shown a decided falling off in Brazil in recent years. In 1900 it was not uncommon for a coffee estate to yield an annual profit of from 100 to 250 percent. Ten years later the average returns did not exceed twelve percent.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FAZENDA GUATAPARA, SO PAULO, BRAZIL, WITH 800,000 TREES IN BEARING]
In Brazil's coffee belt there are two seasons--the wet, running from September to March; and the dry, running from April to August. The coffee trees are in bloom from September to December. The blossoms last about four days, and are easily beaten off by light winds or rains. If the rains or winds are violent, the green berries may be similarly destroyed; so that great damage may be caused by unseasonable rains and storms.
The harvest usually begins in April or May, and extends well into the dry season. Even in the picking season, heavy rains and strong winds--especially the latter--may do considerable damage; for in Brazil shade trees and wind-breaks are the exception.
Approximately twenty-five percent of the So Paulo plantations are cultivated by machinery. A type of cultivator very common is similar to the small corn-plow used in the United States. The Planet Junior, manufactured by a well known United States agricultural-machinery firm, is the most popular cultivator. It is drawn by a small mule, with a boy to lead it, and a man to drive and to guide the plow.
The preponderance of the coffee over other industries in So Paulo is shown in many ways. A few years ago the registration of laborers in all industries was about 450,000; and of this total, 420,000 were employed in the production and transportation of coffee alone. Of the capital invested in all industries, about eighty-five percent was in coffee production and commerce, including the railroads that depended upon it directly. An estimated value of $482,500,000 was placed upon the plantations in the state, including land, machinery, the residences of owners, and laborers' quarters.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright by Brown & Dawson.
PICKING COFFEE IN SO PAULO]
In all Brazil, there are approximately 1,200,000,000 coffee trees. The number of bearing coffee trees in So Paulo alone increased from 735,000,000 in 1914-15 to 834,000,000 in 1917-18. The crop in 1917-18 was 1,615,000,000 pounds, one of the largest on record. In the agricultural year of 1922-23 there were 764,969,500 coffee trees in bearing in So Paulo, and in So Paulo, Mins, and Parana, 824,194,500.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.
INTENSIVE CULTIVATION METHODS IN THE RIBEIRAO PRETO DISTRICT, SO PAULO]
Plantations having from 300,000 to 400,000 trees are common. One plantation near Ribeirao Preto has 5,000,000 trees, and requires an army of 6,000 laborers to work it. Another planter owns thirty-two adjacent plantations containing, in all, from 7,500,000 to 8,000,000 coffee trees and gives employment to 8,000 persons. There are fifteen plantations having more than 1,000,000 trees each, and five of these have more than 2,000,000 trees each. In the munic.i.p.ality of Ribeirao Preto there were 30,000,000 trees in 1922.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.
PRIVATE RAILROAD ON A SO PAULO COFFEE FAZENDA
Showing coffee trees and laborers' houses in the middle distance at right]
The largest coffee plantations in the world are the Fazendas Dumont and the Fazendas Schmidt. The Fazendas Dumont were valued, in 1915, in cost of land and improvements, at $5,920,007; and since those figures were given out, the value of the investment has much increased. Of the various Fazendas Schmidt, the largest, owned by Colonel Francisco Schmidt, in 1918 had 9,000,000 trees with an annual yield of 200,000 bags, or 26,400,000 pounds, of coffee. Other large plantations in So Paulo with a million or more trees, are the Companhia Agricola Fazenda Dumont, 2,420,000 trees; Companhia So Martinho, 2,300,000 trees; Companhia Dumont, 2,000,000 trees; So Paulo Coffee Company, 1,860,000 trees; Christiana Oxorio de Oliveira, 1,790,000 trees; Companhia Guatapara, 1,550,000 trees; Dr. Alfredo Ellis, 1,271,000 trees; Companhia Agricola Araqua, 1,200,000 trees; Companhia Agricola Ribeirao Preto, 1,138,000 trees; Rodriguez Alves Irmaos, 1,060,000 trees; Francisca Silveira do Val, 1,050,000 trees; Luiza de Oliveira Azevedo, 1,045,000 trees; and the Companhia Cafeeria So Paulo, 1,000,000 trees.
The average annual yield in So Paulo is estimated at from 1,750 to 4,000 pounds from a thousand trees, while in exceptional instances it is said that as much as 6,000 pounds per 1,000 trees have been gathered.
Differences in local climatic conditions, in ages of trees, in richness of soil, and in the care exercised in cultivation, are given as the reasons for the wide variation.
The oldest coffee-growing district in So Paulo is Campinas. There are 136 others.
Bahia coffee is not so carefully cultivated and harvested as the Santos coffee. The introduction of capital and modern methods would do much for Bahia, which has the advantage of a shorter haul to the New York and the European markets.
On the average, something like seventy percent of the world's coffee crop is grown in Brazil, and two-thirds of this is produced in So Paulo. Coffee culture in many districts of So Paulo has been brought to the point of highest development; and yet its product is essentially a quant.i.ty, not a quality, one.
COLOMBIA. In Colombia, coffee is the princ.i.p.al crop grown for export. It is produced in nearly all departments at elevations ranging from 3,500 feet to 6,500 feet. Chief among the coffee-growing departments are Antioquia (capital, Medellin); Caldas (capital, Manizales); Magdalena (capital, Santa Marta); Santander (capital, Bucaramanga); Tolima (capital, Ibague); and the Federal District (capital, Bogota). The department of Cundinamarca produces a coffee that is counted one of the best of Colombian grades. The finest grades are grown in the foot-hills of the Andes, in alt.i.tudes from 3,500 to 4,500 feet above sea level.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CONDUCTING SLUICEWAY AT GUATAPARA
The running water carries the picked coffee berries to pulpers and was.h.i.+ng tanks]
[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE PICKING AND FIELD TRANSPORT]
[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE CULTURE IN SO PAULO, BRAZIL]
[Ill.u.s.tration: A NEAR VIEW OF A HEAVILY LADEN COFFEE TREE ON A BOGOTA PLANTATION]
[Ill.u.s.tration: PICKING COFFEE ON A BOGOTA PLANTATION]
Methods of planting, cultivation, gathering, and preparing the Colombian coffee crop for the market are substantially those that are common in all coffee-producing countries, although they differ in some small particulars. About 700 trees are usually planted to the acre, and native trees furnish the necessary shade. The average yield is one pound per tree per year.
While _Coffea arabica_ has been mostly cultivated in Colombia, as in the other countries of South America, the _liberica_ variety has not been neglected. Seeds of the _liberica_ tree were planted here soon after 1880, and were moderately successful. Since 1900, more attention has been given to _liberica_, and attempts have been made to grow it upon banana and rubber plantations, which seem to provide all the shade protection that is needed. _Liberica_ coffee trees begin to bear in their third year. From the fifth year, when a crop of about 650 pounds to the acre can reasonably be expected, the productiveness steadily increases until after fifteen or sixteen years, when a maximum of over one thousand pounds an acre is attained.
Antioquia is the largest coffee producing department in the republic, and its coffee is of the highest grade grown. Medellin, the capital, where the business interests of the industry are concentrated, is a handsome white city located on the banks of the Aburra river, in a picturesque valley that is overlooked by the high peaks of the Andean range. It is a town of about 80,000 inhabitants, thriving as a manufacturing center, abundant in modern improvements, and is the center of a coffee production of 500,000 bags known in the market as Medellin and Manizales. Another center in this coffee region is the town of Manizales, perched on the crest of the Andean spurs to dominate the valley extending to Medellin and the Cauca valley to the Pacific.
There-about many small coffee growers are settled, and several hundred thousand bags of the beans pa.s.s through annually.
One of the interesting plantations of the country was started a few years ago in a remote region by an enterprising American investor. It was located on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains 3,000 to 5,000 feet above sea-level, about twenty-five miles from the city of Santa Marta. An extended acreage of forest-covered land was acquired, about 600 acres of which were cleared and either planted in coffee or reserved for pasturage and other kinds of agriculture. When the plantation came to maturity, it had nearly 300,000 trees. In 1919, there were 425,000 trees producing 3,600 hundred-weight of coffee.
A typical Colombian plantation is the Namay, owned by one of the bankers of the Banco de Colombia of Bogota. It is located a good half day's travel by rail and horseback from the city, about 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. There are 1,000 acres in the plantation, with 250,000 trees having an ultimate productive capacity of nearly 2,000 bags a year. During crop times, which are from May to July, about two hundred families are needed on an estate of this size.