A coffee field is a beautiful sight with its shrubs of dark green dotted here and there with the white, fragrant blossoms and the bright, crimson berries which look almost like cherries. It must be remembered that coffee grows on trees, which are set nine or ten feet apart, for the trees will grow twenty feet high if permitted, and ladders are necessary for the pickers. The trees are raised in nurseries and when a few months old are transplanted. It requires a deep soil, careful cultivation, plenty of rain, and shade for the young plants to reach their highest development. The best altitude is from 2,600 feet to 4,500 feet in this climate. On the lower elevations the plants must be shaded, and the banana is generally employed because it also produces a valuable crop and furnishes a revenue while the coffee trees are maturing. Corn may be planted among the trees if one is in a hurry to obtain returns from the land. The trees will produce a profitable crop in from four to six years after transplanting, although coffee two years from the seed is frequently seen. On the higher elevations the plants must be protected from the north winds of December to February, and a site is generally chosen with a range of hills to the north for shelter. The critical period is the blooming season, when a heavy rainfall, while the trees are in flower, washes away the pollen and will prevent fructification. The “cherry” ripens in October, and they are then gathered and “pulped,” after which they are spread out on the great paved yards, with which every finca is supplied, to dry, after which they are separated and hulled, and then stored. After the pulp has been removed coffee is called in pergamino; then after the parchment-like covering has been removed, it is in oro.
A MILL FOR HULLING COFFEE.
If one feels a decided call to till the soil old Mother Earth will be about as generous to him in coffee culture as in anything. Whatever cultivation one undertakes, he must wait some years to see his money come back. Even if he engages in the raising of cattle, he must wait for the calves to grow, and no calf will grow faster than he pleases, unless you stuff him with expensive grain. With corn, wheat or barley, you must prepare the soil carefully each season, and after the crop is cut and stacked, the land is there again, bare as before. With coffee, after the land is once planted, it does not need replanting for many years.
CHAPTER V
THE PEOPLE
There are but two classes of people in Guatemala, Creoles and Indians. The Creoles include all those who are European or in whom the European blood predominates. They are the business and professional men of the country and the land owners. Although numbering not to exceed one-tenth of the population, this class own all but a small fraction of the wealth of the country. They busy themselves with the business and politics of the country, while the Indians do the real work and even the fighting if there is anything of that kind on hand to be done. A substantial middle class which usually form the backbone of a nation’s strength has not yet been developed.
The Creoles are an interesting race—kind, considerate and courteous. They enjoy leisure, always have time for a friendly conversation and welcome a holiday as a relief from the strain of business cares. If you should chance upon an acquaintance on the street he is never in such a hurry that he would not stop, shake hands, and inquire politely after each member of your family, and would then politely listen in turn to inquiries after each member of his own household, which you would be in duty bound to make, as a courtesy to his own friendly interest. The punctuality of an engagement never bothers them, and the man who persists in keeping or insisting upon such a thing is rather a bore. This easy-going, care-free nature has not hastened the progress of the country.
The Creole woman has ever been a favourite theme of poets, and their black, bewitching eyes have won many a eulogy from both poetic and prose writers; and deservedly so, for woman is ever an excuse for a eulogy and toast in all countries and in all languages. The Spanish-American woman is always interesting, and perhaps, as often as in other bloods, is beautiful. They are home lovers, and the casa, or home, is jealously shielded from prying eyes by the husband or father, who is lord and master. The idea of political suffrage or woman’s rights has never yet agitated their gentle bosoms. Their life is a reminder of Oriental exclusiveness, and a young woman is seldom seen on the street unless her mother or some older woman is with her as a companion.
The windows and balconies furnish convenient seats for the young women of the house, who, forbidden by custom to walk the streets unaccompanied, plant themselves there and inconsiderately stare at all who pass, and especially the men. You can look in return, for it is only properly gallant and polite to stare at them as frankly as if they were pictures or flowers. To the foreigner it is quite embarrassing to pass this gauntlet of curious eyes. When the cool of the day comes Mamma, together with Juanita and Carmencita, may be seen in the window, all of them dressed up and made very beautiful, watching the street with their faces close to the bar. One who knows them well may stop and talk with them, being careful to pay all the attention to Mamma. It is just the same at the bull-fight or theatre, for opera glasses will be levelled with a steady gaze, such as an American would never experience in his own country. It is not the coquettish glance seeking a flirtation, for it is not accompanied by a smile, but is rather that of curiosity, or a natural and uncontrollable interest in the genus represented—that is—man.