. The plants thrived, and this
was the beginning of coffee cultivation in that section of the country.

[Illustration: THIRTY-YEAR-OLD COFFEE TREES, LA ESPERANZA, HUATUSCO,
MEXICO]

It was, however, nearly ten years later before the cultivation was on a
scale approaching industrial and commercial importance. About 1816 or
1818 a Spaniard, named Juan Antonio Gomez, introduced the plant into the
neighborhood of Cordoba. This city, now on the line of the Mexican and
Vera Cruz Railroad, 200 miles from Mexico City, and sixty miles from
Vera Cruz, is 2,500 feet above sea-level, and is situated in the most
productive tropical region of the country.

Having been started in Coatepec and Cordoba, the industry was centered
for a long time in the state of Vera Cruz. For many years practically
all the coffee grown commercially in Mexico was produced in that state.
Gradually the new pursuit spread to the mountains in the adjacent states
of Oaxaca and Puebla, where it was taken up by the Indians almost
entirely, and is still followed by them, but not on a large scale.

Although cultivation is now widely distributed in most of the more
southern states of the republic, the principal coffee territory is still
in Vera Cruz, where lie the districts of Cordoba, Orizaba, Huatusco, and
Coatepec. In the same region are the Jalapa district, and the mountains
of Puebla, where a great deal of coffee is grown. Farther south are the
Oaxaca districts on the mountain slopes of the Pacific coast, and still
farther south the districts of the state of Chiapas. Planting in the
Pluma district in Oaxaca was begun about fifty years ago, and it now
produces annually, in good years, nearly 1,000,000 pounds. The youngest
district in this section is Soconusco, one of the most prolific in the
republic, having been developed within the last thirty years. The region
is near the border of Guatemala, and the coffee is held by many to
possess some of the quality of the coffee of that country. The influence
of Guatemalan methods has been felt also in its cultivation and
handling, especially in increasing plantation productiveness. On the
gulf slope of Oaxaca, there are plantations that annually produce
222,000 to 550,000 pounds. Several United States companies have become
interested in coffee growing in this state, and their output in recent
years has been put upon the market in St. Louis.

Two principal varieties of coffee are recognized in Mexico. A
sub-variety