The History of Cuba, vol. 5

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

Approximately 500 trees are planted to the acre in starting a coffee plantation, and these will yield under favorable conditions at the expiration of the fourth year about one half of a pound to a tree, or 250 pounds to the acre, the value of which would be $50. The sixth year these trees should produce one pound each, making the return from one acre $100. Two years later these same trees will yield $200 per acre, and the tenth year $300. Each succeeding year, if well cared for, the yield should increase until the trees reach maturity at twenty-five years.

On the western slopes of the great Cordilleras that sweep throughout the length of Mexico, several varieties of excellent coffee are found. Among these is one, that through some freak of nature, afterwards encouraged and developed by the natives of that district, has been induced to produce two crops a year. It is stated on reliable authority also that trees ten years old, in this restricted area of western Mexico, will yield five pounds of berries to the tree, or in the two periods of annual bearing a total of ten pounds to each plant. The Department of Agriculture is endeavoring to secure both seed and nursery stock from this district, which will be transplanted to the Experimental Station at Santiago de las Vegas, and definite data secured in regard to the success of this variety of coffee in Cuba.

Where several small coffee farms are located in the same vicinity, hulling machines may be purchased jointly, and serve the needs of other growers in the district. The crop when dried, cleaned and placed in hundred-pound sacks, is usually strapped to the backs of mountain ponies and thus conveyed to the nearest town or seaport for shipment to Havana.

A coffee planter can always store his crop in the bonded warehouses of Havana or other cities, and secure from the banks, if desired, advances equivalent to almost its entire value. The price of green coffee on the market at wholesale ranges from 20¢ to 25¢ per hundred weight.

It is a common sight either in Bahia Honda or Candelaria to see long trains of ponies bringing coffee in from the outlying foot hills, or mountain districts. It is usually sold direct to local merchants, who pay for the unselected unpolished beans, just as they come from the hands of the growers, $20 per hundred weight. This high price is paid owing to the fact that the Cuban product is considered, at least within the limits of the Republic, the best coffee in the world, and it will bring in the local markets a higher price than coffee imported from the foreign countries. The retailers after roasting coffee, get from 40¢ to 50¢ per pound for it.

In spite of its superiority and the demand for native coffee, less than 40% of the amount consumed is grown in Cuba. Most of it is imported from Porto Rico and other parts of the world, and this, regardless of the fact that nearly all of the mountain sides, valleys and foothills belonging to the range that extends through Pinar del Rio from Manatua in the west to Cubanas in the east, are admirably adapted to the cultivation of coffee, as also are the mountains of Trinidad and of Sancti Spiritus in the Province of Santa Clara, the Sierra de Cubitas and la Najassa in Camaguey, and the Sierra Maestra range that skirts the full length of the southern shore of Oriente.

The available lands for profitable coffee culture in Cuba are almost unlimited and are cheap, considering the fertility of the soil, the abundance of timber still standing, the groves of native fruit trees, the good grass found wherever the sun’s rays can penetrate, the splendid drinking water gushing from countless springs, and the many industries to which these lands lend themselves, waiting only the influx of capital, or the coming of the homeseeker.

The Government of Cuba is anxious to foster the coffee industry, which was once a very important factor in the prosperity of the Island. The first protective duty was imposed in 1900; $12.15 being collected for each 100 kilos (225 lbs.) of crude coffee, if not imported from Porto Rico, that country paying only $3.40. During the first years of the Cuban Republic this duty was increased to $18 per hundred kilos, and later, 30% was added, making a total duty paid of $23.40 on every 225 pounds of coffee imported. Porto Rico, however, is favored with a reduction of 20% on the above amount by a reciprocity treaty, which compels that country at present to pay only $18.20 per hundred kilos.

Coffee in Brazil has been sold at from four to five cents per pound and yet, we are told, with profit. On the supposition that it would cost 8¢ per pound to grow it in Cuba, with the average market for the green berries at 22¢, the profit derived from a coffee plantation properly located and cared for is well worth considering, and since the grade produced is one of the finest in the world, there is no reason why this Island should not in time, supply if not the entire amount, at least a large part of the high-grade coffee consumed in the United States.

With the resumption of industries that must follow the termination of the European War, the Government will do all in its power to persuade families from the mountainous district of Europe to settle and make their homes in Cuba. Some of them undoubtedly will be attracted to the forest covered hills that offer so much in the way of health, charming scenery and opportunities for the homeseeker with his family. It would be a most delightful example of agricultural renaissance, if the hundreds of “cafateles,” abandoned for half a century, should again be brought to life, with the resurrection of the old-time coffee plantations, as an important Cuban industry.