cao. It is
obvious that the many transhipments that coffee coming from Cucuta has
to undergo greatly retard its arrival at a foreign port; and a cargo
sometimes takes a month or more to reach New York.

[Illustration: OLD AND NEW METHODS EMPLOYED IN LOADING HEAVY CARGO ON
THE SANTA CECILIA]

Coffee from Cucuta is stored in the Venezuelan custom-house, from which
it must be shipped for export within forty-five days, or the shipper
runs the risk of having it declared by the Venezuelan government for
_consumo_ (home consumption) at a prohibitory tariff. Arrangements can
be made at considerable cost to have the coffee taken to a private
warehouse; but it is no longer possible to make up the chops in
Maracaibo, as was done formerly with all the Cucutas. The Venezuelan
customs will not even allow the Maracaibo forwarding agent the same
chops, as a general rule. Special permission must be obtained to change
any bags that are stained or damaged. Schooners from Curacao have, in
the past, carried a great deal of the Colombian coffee to Curacao.

_Port Handling Charges in Brazil_

It is almost impossible to list all the various charges for the handling
of coffee at the port of shipment in Brazil, the figures not being
accessible to outsiders. Some figures, such as warehouse charges and
various forms of tax, are obtainable, however. For every bag of coffee
which is in warehouse over forty-eight hours from the time of its
arrival from the railroad there is a charge of two hundred reis (about
five cents). In Sao Paulo there is an export tax of nine percent ad
valorem levied by the state, and in Rio the state tax is eight and a
half percent. Then there is a surtax of five francs per bag in Santos,
and of three francs in Rio, which goes toward defraying the expenses of
valorization. For every bag of coffee that passes over the dock the dock
company charges one hundred reis (about two and a half cents).

_Some Record Coffee Cargoes_

With its superior loading and shipping facilities Brazil has been able
to send extraordinarily large cargoes of coffee to the United States
since the development of large modern freight-carrying steamships. While
75,000 or 90,000 bag cargoes were of common occurrence just prior to the
outbreak of the World War, several shipments of more than 100,000 bags
were made in the years 1915, 1916, and 1917. Up to January, 1919, the
record was held by the steamship Bjornstjerne Bjornson which unloaded
136,