i 56 MEXICO. The cultivation of coffee in New Spain possesses, at pre- sent, many advantages over that of sugar. The Arroba sells in the capital at from five to seven dollars, (nearly double the price of the Arroba of sugar,) and may be raised at a much less expense; as a plantation, containing 200,000 plants, does not reqviire the permanent attendance of more than twenty men to weed and water.* The young plants, however, are delicate, and must be pro- tected from the sun for two Avhole years, for which purpose a large piece of ground, called the Semillero, is covered in, and thickly planted with young shoots ; the third year these will bear transplantation to the open field, and the fourth they may be reckoned in full vigour ; they last from twenty- five to thirty years. From the attention which is now paid to coffee plantations, throughout Mexico, it is probable that coffee will soon be added to the list of her exportations, in which case the European market will, undoubtedly, draw from New Spain a very considerable addition to the supply now derived from the West Indian Archipelago ; for, al- though the islands have the advantage of being already in possession of the market, Mexico has that of attracting an- nually to her shores a vast number of European vessels, to all of which a return cargo is an object of no little impor- tance. The slope of the Eastern Cordillera is well calculated to supply this, by its vicinity to the coast, as are the Penin- sula of Yucatan, (in which a few small coffee plantations already exist,) and the State of Tabasco, where coffee, which was originally cultivated merely as an appendage to the cacao plantations, is now considered as a separate branch of agri- culture, and has already been grown, and exported to some extent.
- Ten regadores (waterers) and ten escardadores (weeders) are the
allowance for a plantation ; but in addition to these, fronn fifty to sixty men must be employed in collecting the crop, and as many more in cleaning and pruning the trees afterwards, (la poda;) but these ope- rati(»ns do not last above three months. }
