Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Aspect Of The Landscape
Was Dull And Uniform, And All The Surrounding Hills Were Covered
With Aloes.
Workmen were employed at a small canal, intended for
conveying the waters of the Rio San Pedro to the farm, at a height
of more than seventy feet.
According to a barometric calculation,
the site of the hacienda is only fifty toises above the bed of the
Rio Guayra at La Noria, near Caracas.
The soil of these countries is found to be but little favourable to
the cultivation of the coffee-tree, which in general is less
productive in the valley of Caracas than was imagined when the
first plantations were made near Chacao. The finest
coffee-plantations are now found in the savannah of Ocumare, near
Salamanca, and at Rincon, in the mountainous countries of Los
Mariches, San Antonio Hatillo, and Los Budares. The coffee of the
three last mentioned places, situated eastward of Caracas, is of a
superior quality; but the trees bear a smaller quantity, which is
attributed to the height of the spot and the coolness of the
climate. The greater plantations of the province of Venezuela (as
Aguacates, near Valencia and Rincon) yield in good years a produce
of three thousand quintals.
The extreme predilection entertained in this province for the
culture of the coffee-tree is partly founded on the circumstance
that the berry can be preserved during a great number of years;
whereas, notwithstanding every possible care, cacao spoils in the
warehouses after ten or twelve months.
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