The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Science
The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Botany, Economic
The better to exhibit the decrease of production throughout the
island, I may state that the export from 1839 to 1841 inclusive, was
in the aggregate 1,332,221 quintals; 1842 to 1844, inclusive, was in
the aggregate 1,217,666 quintals; 1845 to 1847, inclusive, was in the
aggregate but 583,208 quintals. The exports of coffee for the whole
island, were, in 1840, 2,197,771 arrobas; in 1841, 1,260,920½ arrobas.
In 1847 there were 2,064 plantations under cultivation with coffee in
Cuba, in 1846 there were only 1,670. The production of 1849 was
1,470,754 arrobas, valued at 2,206,131 dollars. From the year 1841 to
1846, the average yearly production was 45,236,100 lbs.; but from 1846
to 1851, it was only 19,206,100 lbs.; showing a falling off of 72 per
cent.; the production still further decreased in 1851, it being only
13,004,350 lbs., or 1.52 per cent. less than the preceding year. This
enormous decline in the production of coffee has been caused by the
low price of the article in the markets of Europe and the United
States, coupled with the more remunerative price of sugar, during the
same period; causing capitalists rather to invest money in the
formation of new sugar estates. As a consequence, many coffee
plantations have been turned into cane cultivation; or, being
abandoned, the slaves attached thereto were sold or leased to sugar
planters.
The following is private information from a correspondent:--
"We generally plant about 200,000 trees within a space of 500 feet,
choosing the strongest soil. I have adopted a different system from
the one generally in use here, for they usually plant the trees too
near each other. I find by giving them space and air, that the plant
develops itself and yields more beans. It is very important to
protect the trees from the rays of the sun, for which purpose I
plant bananas at intermediate rows; their broad leaves, like
parasols, shed a delightful shade round the coffee plant, and tend
to accumulate the moisture which strengthens the roots of the young
tree.
When the tree is about two years old the top branches are lopped off
for the purpose of throwing the sap into the bean. Some planters cut
the trees so short, that they do not allow them to stand more than
five or six feet above the ground; but I allow mine to attain
greater height prior to lopping them, whereby they produce larger
crops. Nor do I allow my negroes to beat the trees, or force them to
pluck a certain quantity a day, for I discovered that they picked
the ripe and unripe beans indiscriminately--frequently injuring the
trees. I only allow them to shake the tree, and pick up the beans
that have fallen during the night."
Coffee exports from the ports of Havana and Matanzas, in Cuba, for the
years ending December in
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