second time, when the green berries have become
fit to gather, and readily fall to the ground.

A coffee estate well managed, that is, combined with the rearing of
fruits and vegetables intermingled, thus affording the required shade
for the main crop, proves fairly profitable in Cuba to-day, and were
this industry not hampered and handicapped by excessive taxes, it
would attract many new planters. The coffee ripens from August to
December, the nuts then becoming about the size of our cherries. The
coffee-berry is the seed of the fruit, two of which are contained in
each kernel, having their flat surfaces together, surrounded by a soft
pulp. The ripe berries are dried by exposure to the sun's rays, then
bruised in a mill, by which means the seeds are separated from the
berry. They are then screened to cleanse them, after which they are
bagged, and the coffee is ready for market. Some planters take great
care to sort their crop by hand, in which operation the negro women
become very expert. By dividing the berries into first and second
qualities as to size and cleanliness, a better aggregated price is
realized for the entire harvest. Not only are the coffee estates much
more pleasing to the eye than the sugar plantations, but they are also
much more in harmony with the feelings of the philanthropist. There is
here no such exigency in getting in the harvest, leading to the
overwork of the slaves, as on a sugar estate in the grinding season.
Indeed, we were assured that it was quite possible to carry on a
coffee estate with white labor. When, heretofore, a negro has been
brought to the block in Havana, or any other Cuban city, the price
realized for him has always been materially affected by the question
whether he had been employed on a sugar estate in the grinding season.
If he had been thus employed it was considered that his life has been
unduly shortened, and he sold accordingly at a lower price. At the
present time few negroes are bought or sold, as their market value has
become merely nominal. There is no good reason why white labor is not
suited to the coffee and tobacco estates. When the field labor upon
the sugar estates is almost wholly performed by machinery, that is,
the cane cut by a reaper, there will be so much less exposure to the
sun that white hands, under proper management, can perform it.

Tobacco, indigenous to both Cuba and the United States, is a great
source of revenue upon the island. Its cultiva