Coffee and chicory

SECTION XII.

HARVESTING THE CROP AND PREPARATION FOR MARKET.

There are now in Colombo upwards of thirty establishments for the preparation of coffee for shipment, ten or twelve of these employ steam power to drive the requisite machinery. To most of them large barbecues for drying are attached, and cooperages for the preparation of casks, and in the season, which lasts nearly three quarters of the year, from 10,000 to 15,000 women and 1000 to 2000 men are employed in the process.

Though the coffee has been sufficiently dried on the plantation to enable it to reach Colombo in safety, it is not sufficiently hard to part with the silver pellicle which envelops each berry under the parchment skin, and to resist the pressure of the peeler, without some additional drying in the more powerful sun at Colombo.

It is, therefore, again exposed on the barbecue, until it reaches a crisp dryness. (Plate 9 shows the barbecue or drying-floor on Messrs. Worms’ estate, Puselawa, in Ceylon, and the native labourers spreading the coffee to dry.) It is next submitted to the pressure of the peeler, which breaks the berry out of the parchment covering, and sets the silver skin at liberty. It may be noticed that the silver skin, though perhaps not adding two ounces to the weight of 112 lbs., gives the coffee an appearance considered to be unsightly in the London market, and, therefore, depreciates its value; its adherence to the coffee, though the cause is not known in the market, is supposed to be generally the result of bad drying on the plantation, being allowed to remain too long wet, or being permitted to heat after it is taken from the cisterns.

Several processes have to be gone through before the article known in commerce as coffee is produced. In the first place, the pulpy exterior of the berry, as we have seen, has to be removed by the process of pulping, which separates the seed and its thin covering, called the parchment, from the husk. When this pulping process is completed, we have the parchment by itself in a cistern, and the next process consists in getting rid of the mucilage with which it is covered. For this purpose the water is drained from the cistern, and fermentation is allowed to take place, which it readily does after a period of twenty-four hours, or even less on a low estate, where the climate is warm, though forty-eight hours are generally required on the highest estates.

Water is then admitted into the cistern, and the coffee being agitated by wooden rakes, the mucilage combines with the water and is drained off. After this the washed parchment coffee has to be dried to a hard stage, and as it frequently happens that during crop time there is a continuance of wet weather for weeks and months together, the chief difficulties which a planter has to contend with now present themselves.

The peeler, or machine for removing the parchment, consists of a circular trough, in which a wheel is made to travel; this is generally made of wood, and shod with copper sheeting, and is turned by central pressure, like the capstan of a ship, either by hand or by the gearing of machinery attached to a steam-engine. An improvement on this has been made by constructing the travelling wheels of iron, and the trough of plates of the same metal; these plates being serrated in one direction, so as to present a rough surface to the coffee, facilitate the fracture of the parchment. Two wheels are generally made to work in one trough, each of which is provided with a kind of scraper, to stir up the coffee in its path and cause it to present a new face to the pressure.

A coffee-peeler is usually made of durable wood or iron. The circumference of the machine is 36 feet; the breadth between the circles in the machine is 1 foot. The height of the wheel 6 feet; the thickness near the axle-tree 1 foot, and on the top 6 inches; twelve men or four bullocks can turn it. If turned by men 200 bushels of coffee, and if worked by bullocks 140 bushels, can be obtained in nine hours; if by steam about 800 or 1000 bushels. The cost of constructing a machine to be worked by men or bullocks is 25l., by steam 600l.

After undergoing this process, the coffee is passed into a winnower, which removes nearly the whole of the parchment and silver skin. It is now given to the women, in quantities of a bushel each, to be picked over by hand, who take out all blacks, broken berries, triage, or anything calculated to injure its even quality. Further to improve its appearance, the coffee is passed through a sizing machine, by which generally three sizes are separated: the round, or pea berry, and a larger and smaller berry, each of which from the separation is more even in appearance, and as such preferred in the London market.

Sizers are variously made of perforated sheet zinc or wire gauze, with openings of three sizes, increasing from the top in the form of a long pipe, which, being slightly inclined and made to revolve, pass the coffee, poured in above into the bins constructed to receive the different sizes.

The coffee, now ready to be packed, is at once put into casks, containing 6 or 7 cwt. each, and sent away on board ship without delay. These processes are constantly improving and are now thoroughly understood—a remark which would seem uncalled for, but for the recollection of the bungling and conflicting systems which were in vogue a few years since.

SECTION XIII.

PREPARATION FOR MARKET—(Continued).

Past experience having shown that coffee was most easily preserved in a sweet state when spread thinly on the floor, large and commodious buildings were called into use, notwithstanding the unusually heavy expense which attended their erection in situations remote from town, where sufficiently skilful labour was only to be had at the time, and with great difficulty. On this account inadequate accommodation was provided on many plantations, and the coffee accumulating to a considerable depth, no amount of hand-turning could keep it from contracting a musty smell, its proneness to decomposition increasing greatly in proportion to the extent of the accumulation.

Some years ago it occurred to Mr. Clerihew that it was possible, by means of fanners, working on the exhausting principle, so to withdraw air from an enclosed space as to establish a current of air through masses of coffee spread on perforated floors forming the top and bottom of that space. This plan he carried into execution at Rathoongodde plantation, and it has since been adopted by many planters.

The following is a detailed description of Mr. Clerihew’s invention, a model of which was shown at the International Exhibition of 1851:

The water-wheel is an overshot one, nine feet in diameter, and is of much smaller dimensions than any wheel that has hitherto been employed for pulping. It is, however, sufficient in power to work the fans and pulpers simultaneously, the excess of its power over that of other wheels being gained by the diminution of friction consequent on there being no intervening shafting and gearing. The entire wheel is constructed of wood, with the exception of the shaft, which is unusually light, as it has merely to serve as a support to the wheel. By means of a double band rim-bolted to the arms on each side, motion is given to the pulpers from the one and to the fans from the other.

The floors of the curing-house are laid with laths 1¼ inch square and 2 inches apart; these are covered with open coir matting; being rather cheap and durable, this material answers the purpose remarkably well. The side walls of the curing-house are constructed in the manner of the country, viz. of wattled work filled in with clay and smoothed over so as to be air-tight.

To derive the full benefit of natural heat, the roof is covered with felt or with sheet-iron, so that in fine weather the temperature of the air in the upper floor is raised considerably by contact with the hot roof, and its capacity for absorbing moisture much increased, preparatory to its being drawn down through the mass of coffee in the upper floor. Even in the cool climate of the district of Upper Hewahette, at an elevation of 4500 feet, in a fine day the temperature of the air under a felt roof is 120° when the fans are not working, so that a great drying power is thus made available at no expense.

The lower floor, on the other hand, is adapted for the application of artificial heat for the purpose of evaporating the surface water from each separate batch of coffee as it is taken from the washing cisterns preparatory to its being deposited in the upper floor. In wet weather this is essential, for the atmospheric air being then saturated with moisture, no drying can take place until its capacity for absorbing moisture is increased by an increase of temperature. One other reason for adopting this arrangement is, that when the coffee is first taken wet from the washing cisterns the interstices of the beans are more or less occupied with water, and thus present a medium less pervious to air than is the case when the surface water has been dried off. Consequently it is desirable that, until this has been done, the depth of the coffee should not exceed six inches, and, to be equal to every emergency, the heating power ought to be sufficient in the wettest weather to evaporate the surface water from the produce of a day’s picking (within twenty-four hours), so as to allow of its being removed into the upper floor. The daily number of bushels picked from any, or the same plantation, is of course a variable quantity: depending on the extent of the cultivation, the quality of the trees, the number of hands employed, and the elevation of the land; the latter, when considerable, having the effect of prolonging the picking season. The stove is more than sufficient for a daily picking of 400 bushels of cherries.

The heating stove is square, has a waggon head with a semicircular opening in the centre for the passage of air, and is constructed of stout sheet-iron. It is placed within an arch, with a clearance of nine inches all round also for the passage of air, the guiding principle in its construction being to adapt it to the burning of wood, and to expose as much heating surface as possible to the air which flows past it into the air-chamber beneath the ground-floor. The stove opening is the only one which admits air to the coffee on the ground-floor. Consequently, when it is more or less closed by a damper, the power of the fans is exerted either in part or altogether on the mass of coffee in the upper floor.

In these applications of natural and artificial heat to the curing of coffee, the heat is conveyed by the air through the whole depth of coffee in such a manner that each bean feels its influence, whilst the watery products elicited by the heat are at the same time, and by the same means, carried off. It cannot be doubted that these applications are far more effectual than any of the modes hitherto in use; in some cases stoves were employed in the apartment containing the coffee, but it is obvious that their influence could not extend beyond the surface of the mass, and that, if the apartment was closed, there was no provision for carrying off the air that had become loaded with moisture due to its temperature; whilst, if the apartment was open, so as to afford a free draught of air, the greater portion of the heat given out by the stove was carried out before the heated air could act on the coffee. In other cases, heating pipes of various kinds were used below the floors on which the coffee was placed. This arrangement, however, has the effect of injuring the coffee, by steaming it; no provision being made for carrying off the excess of hot watery vapour which accumulates within the mass, but, on the other hand, the natural processes of decomposition are assisted and promoted.

The construction of Mr. Clerihew’s heating apparatus is simple, and a moderate supply of fuel has a considerable effect in raising the temperature of cold damp air before it is brought into contact with the coffee through which it is drawn by the aid of the fans. This heated air becomes diffused throughout the whole of the chamber, which extends beneath the ground-floor in such a manner that no portion of the coffee which is on that floor can be free from its influence.

The fans at Rathoongodde are much more powerful than those in common use, the peculiarity in the shape of the blade giving them a great advantage as air-moving machines, in so far as the indraught is concerned, whilst one-half of the periphery being open a ready exit is afforded for the discharge of air. In the ordinary fan, if a smoking match is applied to any part of the indraught opening, the air will be seen to flow towards a neutral point in the centre of the fan, following a spiral direction, and thence in the periphery of the fan.

In Mr. Clerihew’s modification of the blade each film of air, so to speak, flows into the fan directly, until it impinges on the curvilinear part of the blade, and from that point is thrown at a right angle towards the periphery. The column of air being thus less distorted in its progress, there is not only a greater quantity discharged, but much less power is consumed in effecting that discharge—in the common fan it is evident, from the circumstance of the air flowing to an apex, that a great amount of power is wasted in producing the increased velocity with which a column of air equal in volume to the two ingress openings of the fan must pass so contracted an area before it is discharged; hence it is that the fan, as an air-moving machine, has been considered unequal to the screw.

The enclosed space of the coffee-curing house at Rathoongodde has an area in the cross section of 100 superficial feet, it is 70 feet long, and a pair of fans are placed at one end. Repeated experiments have shown that, when the fans make 100 revolutions per minute, a cloud of smoke travels to them from the centre of the enclosed space (a distance of 35 feet) in precisely 15 seconds, hence we have 100 × 35 = 3500 cubic feet of air discharged in a quarter of a minute, or 14,000 cubic feet per minute; a screw of nearly seven feet in diameter would be required to discharge the same amount of air, and the cost of it in England is 84 guineas, whilst the pair of fans made and fitted up at Rathoongodde cost under 9l.

In the centre of the enclosed space, with a depth of four feet of coffee in the upper floor, the flame of a candle is blown to a right angle when the whole power of the fans is put on that floor; near to the fans it is extinguished, the air moving forward with a uniformly accelerated velocity from the farther end towards the fans, owing to the constant accessions made by the air entering the enclosed space throughout its whole length.

It has already been mentioned that the only entrance of air into the air-chamber beneath the ground-floor is by the opening in which the stove is placed, consequently, when this opening is closed by a damper, it is obvious that the whole power of the fans is exerted on the mass of coffee which is being cured on the upper floor, and that the division of this power may be regulated at will by more or less obstructing the entrance of air to the air-chamber by the damper. The upper floor is not supposed to be an air-tight apartment, but as the chief entrance of air is by the two doors in the end, its influx may be so far obstructed by closing them as to throw the greater part of the power of the fans on the coffee which is on the ground-floor, when this is required. Again, since it is obvious that, in wet weather, when the atmosphere is fully saturated with moisture proportionate to its temperature, it becomes a desideratum to introduce a portion of the artificially heated air into the vacant space which is over the coffee in the upper floor, so that the air which passes down through that coffee may have an absorbing tendency; this is accomplished by shutting the doors of the upper floor and throwing open the top-covering of the fan. By this means one-half of the air which is drawn from the stove is thrown in above the coffee in the upper floor, whilst the other half is discharged altogether. This infusion of heated air would on many occasions be attended with benefit, but the advantage will naturally depend on the comparative state of dryness of the coffee on the two floors.

In having recourse to these practical modifications some little judgment and observation are of more service than precept. It will be found, for instance, that if the coffee in the upper floor approaches the dry stage, it is better in wet weather to shut the doors of that floor as well as the tops of the fans, so that only a small flittering of air sufficient to ward off the first stages of decomposition may pass through that coffee, whilst the wet coffee below has the full benefit of a more rapid circulation of absorbent air.

Attention may now be directed to the practical results which these arrangements have afforded in the curing of coffee.

The coffee in the upper floor, as the crop advanced, gradually increased in depth until it stood at four feet all over the floor. When at this depth, with the fans making 100 revolutions per minute, the flow of air was quite sensible to the hand placed on the surface of the coffee, and was rendered apparent by the smoke from a match following the direction of the air; at the same time the rarefaction of the air within the enclosed space was so very slight as barely to be appreciable by a very delicate mountain barometer, though it had the effect of causing the door to shut with a slam; thus showing that a slight rarefaction of the air is sufficient to disturb the balance of atmospheric pressure, even when acting through a medium of coffee of considerable depth. The current of air thus established continued to flow without interruption until the fans were stopped.

A cold glass tumbler taken into the store in a warm day, when the fans were not in motion, became instantly dimmed and wet by the precipitation of moisture from the internal air. When another glass was taken into the store, one minute after the fans were put in motion, it remained clear, without a trace of moisture.

A very satisfactory result soon showed itself, viz. that whilst the temperature of the air as it entered the moist coffee was 80° in a warm day, the temperature of the coffee itself, as indicated by an immersed thermometer, was only 58°; the wet coffee being invariably coldest when the air that was made to pass through it was warmest. This paradox admitted of easy explanation, when it was considered that each bean of undried coffee was under similar circumstances to evaporating vessels of water placed in a draught of warm air for the purpose of cooling the water. The cold thus produced was, therefore, the necessary concomitant of the evaporation that was going on, and the difference between these temperatures afforded a measure of the drying power in different states of the weather. The circumstance of the hot air lowering the temperature of the coffee was also favourable in another point of view, seeing that it has been shown that heat is one of the conditions which promotes mouldiness, or the germination of fungi.

Every bushel of parchment coffee contains half a cubic foot of air, a fact ascertained by a bushel which took thirty-three measures of water to fill it. When full of newly-washed coffee it took thirteen of these measures of the water to displace the air from the interstices of the beans without overflowing, so that we have 13—33 of air in a bushel of coffee; in other words, half a cubic foot. Hence, the fans in use are capable of giving a fresh atmosphere to 28,000 bushels of coffee every minute, or in the same time four fresh atmospheres to 7000 bushels.

During a continuance of nearly three months of wet weather which occurred at one crop time, the coffee in the curing-house dried very slowly, but was kept in a perfectly fresh and sweet state without the intervention of any manual labour, further than in depositing each day’s increase in the lower floor to dry off the surface water, and removing that of each previous day to the upper floor, where it was spread on the top of all the coffee that had previously accumulated. These three months of wet weather were succeeded by a fortnight of very dry weather, and, on examining the coffee at the end of that period, it was found to have reached the dry horny stage at which it is usual to despatch it from the estate to Colombo, for the purpose of being peeled and shipped. On examining the beans they were found to be of that clear colour which distinguishes coffee carefully cured in small quantities, with the advantage of the most favourable weather. Under like circumstances, viz. during such a continuation of wet weather, it would have been impossible to preserve the coffee free from more or less mustiness of smell, by manual labour employed in the usual way, whilst at the same time the expense of storework would have been more than fourfold. The whole expense of the storework, viz. pulping, washing, curing, and storing the Rathoongodde coffee, amounted to 2¼d. per cwt., and when it is considered that during crop time the value of every man’s labour is greatly increased, it is an object, as far as possible, to substitute mechanical contrivance for manual labour, so that all hands may be employed in gathering the crop as it ripens.

Every planter knows that when coffee is spread out in a single layer on the floor of his store, it becomes dry after a time, and is well cured without any further attention on his part; but it is impossible to devote sufficient space for this purpose without incurring an expense which would be quite incompatible with his circumstances. When, however, coffee is thus spread out in a single layer, it is obvious that the reason why it requires no attention is, because the beans being freely exposed to the atmosphere, there is naturally a constant change of the air by which they are surrounded; the same air is not sufficiently long in contact with the beans to excite the first action of decomposition, and the absorption of oxygen is not accomplished. Presuming, however, that it were so, the subsequent actions could not take place, for the products of the first action, viz. carbonic acid, heat and watery vapour, would immediately make their escape and be dissipated by the atmosphere, which is precisely what takes place when, by mechanical means, a draught of air is carried through a mass of coffee. Hence, it is evident that the requirements of space are overcome by the adoption of this plan, and that a great mass of coffee is placed under conditions similar to those by which a single layer is influenced when exposed to a natural draught of atmospheric air.

SECTION XIV.

CULTIVATION IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

Though some parts of India are well adapted to the culture, it is not yet so extensively cultivated as might have been expected from the vicinity of its Arabian sites to the Malabar coast. There, however, some excellent coffee is grown, as well as in the hilly regions of Mysore and on the slopes of the Neilgherries, and some of these are of such good quality, and so carefully prepared, as to bring the same price as Mocha coffee. Some very good specimens of coffee have also been produced in the interior of India, as in the district of Chota Nagpore, where the culture might apparently be greatly extended, and be of great benefit for consumption in that part of the country.

According to local tradition, the coffee-plant was introduced into Mysore by a Mussulman pilgrim, named Baba Booden, who came from Arabia about two hundred years ago, and took up his abode as a hermit in the uninhabited hills in the Nuggur Division named after him, and where he established a college, which still exists, endowed by government. It is said that he brought some coffee-berries from Mocha, which he planted near to his hermitage, about which there are now to be seen some very old coffee-trees. However this may be, there is no doubt that the coffee-plant has been known in that neighbourhood from time immemorial, but the berry has never come into general use among the people for a beverage. It is only of late years that the coffee trade of these districts has become of any magnitude, or that planting has been carried to any important extent. The export of coffee from British India, which in 1851 was only 3239 tons, had increased in 1861 to 8535 tons; about one-fourth of this is shipped from Bombay, and nearly all the remainder from Madras.

More than thirty years ago a few Europeans were engaged in coffee planting near Chickmoogloor, a few miles from the Bababooden Hills. About twenty years ago the plantation producing the well-known coffee called “Cannon’s Mysore,” and others, on the Memzera, or “Bad Mountain,” was commenced by two enterprising gentlemen. The success of these has induced many more Europeans to plant coffee there, and the consequence is that the coffee trade of Mysore bids fair to emulate that of Ceylon. It has given, also, an example to other parts of India, and the plant originally taken from the Bababooden Muth is now extending over tens of thousands of acres in Coorg, the Wynaad district, the Neilgherry Hills, and along the Western Ghauts, north and south.

In Mysore the number of European coffee-planters has increased to about thirty, while the number of native planters is estimated at between three and four thousand.

The average produce per acre in Mysore is probably not half that of Ceylon. Some attempts have been made to cultivate coffee in the open country, but without success; it seems to require forest land and considerable elevation and moisture. “Cannon’s Mysore” is grown on a range of hills from 3500 to 4000 feet above the sea, having the benefit of the south-west monsoon, which very seldom fails at all, never entirely, and of the tail-end of the north-east monsoon. This elevation gives a pleasant climate, well suited to Europeans.

Several species of the genus Coffea (C. alpestris, C. grumeloides, and C. Wightiana) are indigenous to the Neilgherry Hills.

A berry, generally one which has itself fallen ripe from the tree, is put into the ground, usually in a nursery plot, though some planters prefer to place the seed in the identical hole which is to be its future situation. The nursery plan is, however, generally adopted, and here the young plant, which shoots up in about a month after it is sown, is allowed to remain until about sixteen months old. It, or rather we will say they, for hundreds and thousands are generally dealt with at once, are transplanted to holes which have been carefully prepared for them on the soil which is to be their future location. These holes are generally two feet cube, and many good planters prefer them even deeper; in this the plant is carefully placed and covered around, and in eighteen months from that time, i.e. about three years from the time the berry was first planted, our small coffee-tree begins to bear fruit, the first crop being of course very scanty.

The berry is picked from November to the end of February, by any number of men, women, and boys which can be collected, and who are paid by the quantity they pick, some expert hands earning a good deal.

The berry collected is carried to the house of the estate, and there having been weighed, is thrown into what is called a cherry loft, a wooden chamber, alongside of, but a little higher, than the place containing the pulper. From this cherry loft to the pulper the coffee is washed by a stream of water, which carries it along a trough so arranged as to catch and impede any stones or heavier materials from entering the pulping machine. These heavier materials sink to the bottom of the trough, and the buoyant coffee-berry, floating on the surface, is borne to its destination.

The object of the pulper is to remove the fleshy capsule from the berry, and this being accomplished, the coffee passes on in one direction, whilst the pulp, by a clever arrangement of the mechanism of the instrument, is pushed away in another. The berry is now thrown into a vat and allowed to ferment, until the remaining mucilaginous substance adherent to the parchment covering is easily washed away by water.

This accomplished, it is thrown on open exposed places, called barbecues, and allowed to dry in the sun. This takes about twelve days, when it is packed in gunny (jute) bags, placed upon bullocks, and despatched to the coast.

There it is what is called garbled, that is, having been once more exposed to the sun and thoroughly dried, it is placed in circular troughs, and over it large heavy wheels, shod with iron nails, are made to revolve. This removes what is called the parchment skin, leaving the berry now covered only with a beautifully fine coating, the silver skin.

It is then, by a number of women employed for the purpose, carefully sized; after this, passed through a pea-berry mill, the object being to separate the round pea-shaped berry from the flatter, the former being much more prized, and fetching a higher price in the market, though why, it is difficult to say, as it makes no better coffee than the other; and as it has to be deprived of its form by roasting and grinding before it comes to table, the advantage of its pea-shaped figure is, to say the least of it, somewhat obscure.

There is likewise separated from the rest what is called “triage,” the broken and otherwise defective beans, which are also packed by themselves, and which again, we believe, though selling more cheaply, are found to make quite as good an infusion for a beverage as their more aristocratic friends the pea-berries. However, pea-berries, flats, and triage, are all ultimately packed in square wooden boxes and shipped to England, where it is sold, roasted, ground, and drank.

In Wynaad, in the close of 1863, there were 93 coffee estates, covering 50,000 acres, of which about 15,000 acres were planted; 6100 acres had trees over two years old on them. There were also about 3600 acres under culture with coffee by the natives. Wynaad is an elevated plateau, rising somewhat abruptly from the western or Malabar side, but sloping more towards the Mysore or easterly side.

The quantity of coffee exported from Tellicherry during the official year ending April, 1862, was 58,500 cwt., of which about 30,000 cwt. is supposed to have come from Wynaad, the rest from Coorg. 8 cwt. of coffee per acre is considered an average yield in Wynaad, 10 cwt. a good crop.

SECTION XV.

BOURBON, JAVA, AND THE EAST.

At the Paris Exhibition of 1855, the Netherlands Commercial Association contributed a very varied collection of two dozen varieties of coffees from the Dutch government possessions in Java, under the following classification: Brown, clear brown, deep yellow, yellow, yellowish, white, whitish, pale of Havana kind, blue, fine green, handsome green, green, greenish, mottled green, deep green West India kind, green West India kind, pale green West India kind, dark Demerara kind, green Demerara kind, deep grey, triage, common black, greenish Menado, and white Padang. The Netherlands Society sell about 1,000,000 bags or bales of coffee annually.

The following were the exports of coffee from Java in 1862:

The position of the coffee trade of Java is shown in the figures annexed, for five years:

Three kinds of Java coffee are commonly brought to Europe—Jacatra (usually sold as Java), Cheribou, and Samarang. The first is the best, the second is generally a little lighter colour and of somewhat inferior quality, and the third has yellowish brown, or green, flattened beans. What is generally sold in the Dutch markets as Samarang is, however, simply a kind of “triage,” with black beans of a coarse flavour.

Siam.—On the hilly districts of the east coast of the Gulf of Siam the cultivation of coffee is carried on to a limited extent, and some very fine samples of Siam coffee were shown at the International Exhibition of 1862, sent me by Messrs. Markwold and Co., and by Sir Robert Schomburgk, the British Consul-General.

Sumatra is one of the worst kinds of coffee received from the Eastern Archipelago. The beans are large, dark yellow or brown, and occasionally even black, and the flavour varies considerably. The production in Sumatra averages about 5 to 6,000,000 lbs., but has often been double that amount.

Celebes.—With the exception of Menado, which has large beans of a pale greenish or yellow colour, Celebes coffee is greatly inferior to Java, and it is questionable whether the colour when brought to market is not given by artificial means. The production is about 1,000,000 lbs.

Philippines.—Manilla coffee is one of the best of the Eastern kinds, and quite equal to Java. The average production is about 3,000,000 lbs. The beans are medium-sized, and of a pale greenish colour. The coffee is shipped in bags of about 150 lbs., or in cases or chests of 200 lbs. to 300 lbs.

Other Sources.—The cultivation of coffee is making rapid progress in the Sandwich Islands. There are now considerably more than half a million trees in bearing on the island, producing upwards of 2,000,000 lbs. annually—the largest proportion of which is shipped to California. Queensland and the northern districts of Australia could raise large quantities of coffee. It is much less laborious than cotton, more fitted for women and children, and, being adapted to the mountain ranges of tropical climates, of course more healthy and invigorating than the sultry plains. The range of mountains varying from twenty-five to thirty miles from the northern coast of Australia, towards Torres Straits, would be admirably suited to the culture.

SECTION XVI.

COFFEE AS A BEVERAGE.

2. Buy your coffee ready roasted, but not ground; that is, buy coffee-berries, and always choose such as are fresh roasted, in preference to stale. Observe, also, whether your grocer keeps the article properly shut up in tin canisters, or lets it lie about in open tubs or trays.

3. If possible, buy a coffee-mill, one that will grind very coarsely. The price varies from 2s. 6d. to 5s. This article is so essential to a good cup of coffee, that no one who can afford the outlay should hesitate to buy one. Those who have a pestle and mortar may try the method of bruising; but whether a mill or a mortar, no more should be ground or crushed than is wanted for use at the time.

4. Coffee requires to be kept in a very dry place; and, as it readily takes up the flavour of other articles near which it may be placed, it should be kept in an air-tight vessel. If you buy tea and coffee at the same time, do not pack them in one parcel or basket, or carry them in the same packet, for the true flavour of both will be injured. We presume that no one will be so careless as to keep either tea or coffee in paper only; a wooden box would be better than this, but a bottle or porcelain jar is best of all.

5. Have a clean, dry coffee-pot; it should always be rinsed out when put away, and turned down to drain.

6. To every half pint of water, allow half an ounce of coffee-powder; have your kettle of water boiling, put the necessary quantity of powder into the coffee-pot, and pour in as much water from the kettle as you require. Set the pot on the fire for a few seconds, but on no account let the contents boil up; then pour about half a pint of the liquor into a cup, and pour it back again into the pot, and stand it on the hob or on the fender to settle. If these directions have been properly followed, there will be in three or four minutes a pot of coffee as clear and well-tasted as any one could wish to drink. Should it be too strong, you have only to use less of the coffee-powder. All the goodness is extracted with the first boiling; and those who wish to drink good coffee must never boil the same grounds a second time.

7. The milk in all cases must be warmed, and used as hot as possible; and it should always be put into the cup with the sugar before the coffee is poured in. When a cup of coffee is taken after dinner, it should be drank without milk, and with little or no sugar.

8. But of all the preparations of coffee there is none equal to the French, known as café au lait, or milk coffee. We have drank it constantly for several years, and can pronounce it to excel all others as a breakfast beverage. In this there is more milk than water, and the coffee liquor is rather an essence than a decoction; it will be almost black in colour. The process to be followed is the same in most respects as described; but, instead of a quart or three pints, not more than a third of your usual quantity of water is to be poured on the full quantity of coffee-powder. After it has stood to settle, pour it carefully off the grounds into a jug or pitcher, which is to be kept hot by any convenient means. In this way the liquor, though black, will be perfectly clear. At the same time a quantity of milk, according to the wants of your party, must be heated in a saucepan with a spout or a lip. When this is ready, pour it into your breakfast-cups until they are three-parts full, or rather more, add the sugar, and then fill up with coffee from the jug, more or less, according as you prefer it strong or weak. Coffee made in this way will be found more nutritious, and to possess greater richness and smoothness, than can be attained by any other means.

Many persons are in the habit of keeping roasted coffee in vessels of tin, closely secured; this is a most improper mode, and the consequences of doing so may be pointed out. It is known that coffee contains gallic acid, a principle which has the property of acting on iron or tin, and it is therefore certain that in keeping coffee in these canisters the acid has such an effect in dissolving particles of the metal, as not only to affect the taste, but even the colour of the coffee. To convince one’s self of this, it is only necessary to leave some freshly-roasted coffee in a tinned vessel for a time, and it will soon be found to have imbibed a black colour and a most disagreeable taste.

It appears, therefore, to be necessary to avoid keeping coffee in these metal receptacles. The best mode of properly preserving the article is by using vessels of porcelain, or other similar material. With regard to the description of coffee-pot to be used in preparing the article, it should never be of tin or iron; nothing will so soon and so surely destroy the fine flavour of the beverage as these descriptions of coffee-pots. It has generally been the practice to make coffee either by boiling it, or by pouring boiling water on the ground coffee placed on a filter. Both of these methods are bad.

Experience has shown that boiling water destroys or sensibly alters the volatile parts of the berry, and dissolves those which are bitter and unpleasant. We ought not, therefore, to employ water heated to a greater temperature than to allow the finger being placed in it. But difficult as it may be to believe, there can be no doubt but that the best mode of preparing this beverage is with cold water. Coffee so made is not only more aromatic, more limpid, and more substantial, but it is far stronger than any made with hot water. The cold infusion takes from the coffee and communicates to the water all its aromatic qualities, while it does not imbibe much, if any, of the gallic acid; consequently this preparation is far less bitter than that which has been boiled, in which process the most minute particles are acted upon.

Coffee thus made is of a fine bright and dark colour; it requires far less sugar and much less care, because all that has to be done is to place the powder on the filter, drop on it a little water, and when well moistened to pour on it the proper quantity of water. The filtration will be completed in a moderately short space of time, and the liquor having run through, may be again poured on the coffee, so as to remove any further portion of flavour left in it; and when this has been done, the preparation will be so delicate and aromatic that those who taste it will adopt the mode in preference to any other. When the coffee thus made is to be warmed for use, it must not be heated to the boiling point, and take care that the vessel in which it is warmed be quite full. It may be here remarked that coffee thus made warm is always more pleasant than when drank at the time of its preparation, provided it be not made to boil, and that the coffee-pot be well closed. It is equally necessary with the above that the berry should be well and thoroughly roasted, and not ground in a mill or machine, but pounded and sifted, so as to secure the particles being of equal fineness.

To enter into an examination of the comparative merits and demerits of the several percolators and cafetières at present in use, would extend these observations to too great a length; but most of those generally adopted are worthless, or complicated, with the abominable bag-filter, which is seldom kept clean. There is ample room for inventors in the manufacture of a simple coffee-pot with a water-gauge at the side, which shall effect what is not now done—a passage of the hot water once only through the coffee, so as to have a bright infusion instead of a muddy decoction.

“Tea,” observes Dr. Sigmond, “as the morning beverage, when breakfast forms a good substantial meal, upon which the powers for the day of meeting the various chances and changes of life depend, provided it be not strong, is much to be recommended; but when individuals eat little, coffee certainly supports them in a more decided manner; and, besides this, tea without a certain quantity of solid aliment, is much more likely to influence the nervous system. Some persons, if they drink tea in the morning and coffee at night, suffer much in animal spirits and in power of enjoyment of the pleasure of society; but if they reverse the system, and take coffee in the morning and tea at night, they reap benefit from the change; for the coffee, which to them in the morning is nutrition, becomes a stimulus at night; and the tea, which acts as a dilutent at night, gives nothing for support during the day.”

The Turks drink their coffee very hot and strong, and without sugar; occasionally they put in, when boiling, a clove or two bruised, or a few seeds of star anise, or a drop of essence of amber.

The following quotations from recent travellers give the Turkish mode of making coffee:

“The bruised or ground beans are thrown into a small brass or copper saucepan; sufficient water, scalding hot, is poured upon them, and, after being allowed to simmer for a few seconds, the liquid is poured into small cups, without refining or straining. Persons unaccustomed to this way of making coffee find it unpalatable. Those who have overcome the first introduction prefer it to that made after the French fashion, whereby the aroma is lost or deteriorated. A well made cup of good Turkish coffee is indeed the most delectable beverage, that can be well imagined, being grateful to the senses and refreshingly stimulant to the nerves. Those who have long resided in the East can alone estimate its merits.”—White’s Three Years in Constantinople.

“The Turkish way of making coffee produces a very different result from that to which we are accustomed. A small conical saucepan, with a long handle, and calculated to hold about two table-spoonfuls of water, is the instrument used. The fresh roasted berry is pounded, not ground, and about a dessert-spoonful is put into the minute boiler; it is then nearly filled with water, and thrust among the embers; a few seconds suffice to make it boil, and the decoction, grounds and all, is poured into a small cup, which fits into a brass socket much like the cup of an acorn, and holding the china cup as that does the acorn itself. The Turks seem to drink this decoction boiling, and swallow the grounds with the liquid. We allow it to remain a minute, in order to leave the sediment at the bottom. It is always taken plain; sugar or cream would be thought to spoil it; and Europeans, after a little practice (longer, however, than we had), are said to prefer it to the clear infusion drunk in France. In every hut you will see these coffee-boilers suspended, and the means for pounding the roasted berry will be found at hand.”—Christmas’s Shores and Islands of the Mediterranean.

“A small vessel, containing about a wine-glass of water, is placed on the fire, and, when boiling, a teaspoonful of ground coffee is put into it, stirred up, and it is suffered to boil and ‘bubble’ a few seconds longer, when it is poured (grounds and all) into a cup about the size of an egg-shell, encased in gold or silver filigree-work, to protect the finger from the heat; and the liquid, in its scalding, black, thick, and troubled state, is imbibed with the greatest relish. Like smoking, it must be quite an acquired taste.”—Maxwell’s Shores of the Mediterranean.

CHICORY

SECTION I.

INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND.—CONTINENTAL PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION.

The cultivation and consumption of chicory have now attained a very great importance, not only on the Continent, but also in the United Kingdom. Dating its extended use chiefly from the system pursued by the first Napoleon to substitute home-grown for colonial products, it has gradually become approved and popularised for a beverage, either used alone or more generally mixed with coffee, in numerous countries, where it can be sold far under the price of even the lowest grade coffees.

The manufacture of a factitious coffee from roasted chicory-root would seem to have originated in Holland, where it has been used for more than a century. It remained a secret until 1801, when it was introduced into France by M. Orban of Liége, and M. Giraud of Homing, a short distance from Valenciennes. This root is not superior to many others which possess sweet and mucous principles, but of all the plants which have been proposed as substitutes for coffee, and which, when roasted and steeped in boiling water, yield an infusion resembling the berry, it is the only one which has maintained its ground. The French, not satisfied with chicory, have recently introduced acorn coffee and roasted beetroot. The beet, it is asserted, besides communicating its hygienic qualities, also helps to sweeten the beverage. This new coffee is called “café de betterave,” as the old was called “café chicorée.” These distinctions will soon become as puzzling as those in America, which led the Irish waiter to ask if the gentleman would have coffee-tay or tay-tay.

Mr. George Phillips, when giving evidence before Mr. Scholefield’s Parliamentary Committee on Adulteration, in 1855, stated that, prior to the year 1832, little was heard of the use of chicory in this country, but in the subsequent three years its use had gradually so increased that the Board of Inland Revenue was obliged to take steps against the sale. “I have no doubt (he adds), from my own experience, that a very large bulk of the public prefer the mixture. That, however, is a matter of taste. The trade contend that good coffee, mixed with one-eighth part of chicory, and sold at a moderate price, makes a better beverage than ordinary coffee would do at the same price, and the great mass of the public prefer it. Chicory sold as coffee yields a certain profit, but probably it equalises itself in the general competition of trade. There is a large quantity of chicory sold by itself, and drank as a beverage in the neighbourhood of Manchester and Liverpool. I believe the price of a pound of the cheapest kind of coffee, purchased by the bulk of the poor people, and a pound of the mixture, is about the same. The trade say, when we use a portion of chicory we use a better coffee. I do not know the fact of my own knowledge. Whether the coffee sold in mixtures is of a superior quality to that sold as a pure article would be very difficult to ascertain; it depends upon the question of taste and aroma. The chicory itself is not always pure.”

On the first introduction of chicory into Great Britain a nominal duty of 20 per cent. was levied on it, which, owing to the representations of the coffee-planters, was afterwards increased to the same rate as that then payable on British plantation coffee. The high duty thus levied on foreign-grown chicory soon led to its cultivation in England, but so little was known of the plant that the farmers required the rent to be paid in advance for the use of their land. In the autumn of 1853 we find chicory grown in Kent, Surrey, and Essex, where the article was prepared, and met with a large sale. With the increasing demand for the root, its culture spread to Bedford, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire. At first the price realised was as high as 50l. per ton ground, and 20l. per ton in the root. But as the growth extended the price receded. The admission, duty free, of foreign-grown chicory, in 1854, led to the abandonment of much of the home culture.

In 1842, Mr. McCulloch assumed the growth and consumption of chicory in the United Kingdom to be 6¾ million pounds; in 1850, from careful inquiries I instituted, I estimated the consumption then to be double that amount. Mr. Braithwaite Poole, in his “Statistics of Commerce,” published in 1852, rated the actual production of chicory-root, made into powder in England and Guernsey, then as high as 14,000 tons, worth, at 22l. per ton, 308,000l. The gradually increasing imports of foreign-grown replaces much formerly produced at home, but the changes in legislative enactments have much interfered with the consumption of chicory here, and hence the import is not so remunerative. From 1856 to 1859 the imports of foreign chicory in the root rose from 81,721 cwts. to 267,000 cwts., but there has since been a gradual decline to 45,563 cwts. in 1862. The value has ranged from 6s. to 10s. 6d. per cwt.

The largest quantity comes from Belgium, the next from Holland, and a little from Hamburg and other quarters. There are also some considerable imports of roasted and ground chicory, which is chiefly re-exported; 76,206 lbs. of chicory-powder were imported in 1862.

Roasted and reduced to powder chicory is the most universal substitute for coffee in the chief continental countries, especially in France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Russia, and other Northern States. In Germany, the ground chicory is made up into cakes, and sold in that form. Denmark and the Duchies consume about 3,000,000 lbs. annually. A few years ago the annual import of chicory-root into Hamburg was 24,600 cwts., and of ground chicory and other coffee substitutes 13,000 cwts.

Belgium exports 6,000,000 or 7,000,000 lbs. yearly. The quantity of the dried root consumed in France is about 16,000,000 lbs. a year. Formerly they were able to export 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 lbs., but now enough is not produced for home consumption. In 1860, about 10,000,000 lbs. of chicory-root was imported into France, chiefly from Belgium, and about 660,000 lbs. of chicory in powder was exported, chiefly to Algeria. Till within a few years the cultivation was carried on principally near Valenciennes, but lately manufactories have sprung up in several localities, especially at Arras, Cambray, Lille, Paris, Senlis, in Normandy, Brittany, &c. In some parts of Germany the women are becoming regular chicory-topers, making of it an important part of their daily sustenance.

SECTION II.

CULTIVATION, HARVESTING, AND PREPARATION FOR MARKET.

As the plants are a long time in coming up, generally five or six weeks from the time of sowing the seed, it is necessary that the land should be very clean, or the weeds (particularly chickweed) are liable to overtop and smother the young plants. The time of sowing varies in different districts; in the midland and eastern counties of England, the second or third week in May is considered best, for if sown earlier, many of the plants will run to seed, in which case they are called “runners” or “trumpeters,” and must be carefully dug out and destroyed when the time for taking up has arrived, because if allowed to become mixed with the bulk, they will spoil the sample. The best crops have been obtained when the seed has been sown broadcast; but the preference is usually given to drilling, the crop being more easily hoed and cleansed. The rows are generally from 9 to 12 inches apart, and about 3 or 4 lbs. of seed per acre is the quantity used.

Most of the cultivators of chicory single out the plants so as to leave spaces between them in the rows, each about 6 or 8 inches long; but there are many who do not do this, fancying that four or five small plants produce more weight of root than one large plant; the expediency of this, however, is very questionable, as it does not allow of the land being nearly so well cleaned as when the practice of singling is adopted.

In October or November, the work of taking up the roots may be commenced, and continued during the winter (if the crop cannot be previously secured), until it is finished. Although the roots penetrate a long way downwards, they become too thin below 14 or 15 inches to be useful, and the utmost care is also required in order to get up that portion of the root which will prove profitable.

In some cases chicory has been ploughed up, about 12 inches deep, with a strong cast-iron plough drawn by six horses, having men to fork each furrow to pieces with common potato-forks before a second furrow is ploughed upon it, and women and children following to pick up the roots and cut off the tops.

But the best method is found to be that of digging up the roots with double-pronged strongly-made iron forks, the blades being about 14 inches in length, and each fork, with shaft and handle complete, weighing about 8 lbs.

The plan of ploughing is liable to bring too much of the subsoil to the surface, and costs quite as much, if not more, than digging.

The advantage which is looked for in ploughing, is to ensure getting the roots up from a greater depth than can be done by digging, as a great number break off about 8 or 9 inches long, unless a boy is employed to assist the diggers, and is very careful to pull the top at the precise time that the man presses the root upward with his fork.

When dug, the tops should be neatly cut off, and the roots conveyed to the washing-house to be cleaned. Sometimes they are earthed in pits, but, generally speaking, they are taken to the washing-house immediately after being dug up.

In the former case, on the Continent, the roots, with the leaves cut off, are thrown, in heaps of from four to six feet in length, width, and height, on the surface of the ground; some straw and then some earth are put around. But generally the growers deliver the roots to the manufacturers from the latter end of August to November, by whom they are immediately dried.

The root is from 2 to 4 inches thick, 3 to 7 inches long, and occasionally, in a good soil, 3 lbs. in weight. In Brunswick they obtain from 4 to 6 tons of root per Brunswick acre.

The weight of the crop depends entirely upon the richness or poverty of the soil, the tillage and manure it has received, and other circumstances. The fault in England is the striving to grow as heavy a crop as possible, to the very great detriment of the quality of the root for powder.

In Brunswick the price of the root in the original state varies from 20s. to 40s. per ton, according as the crops have been good or bad, and an acre will realise from 5l. to 7l. The cost for cultivation is from 3l. 15s. to 4l. 10s.; 1½ to 2 tons is about an average crop.

Mr. William Strickney, who has grown and prepared chicory for the manufacturer to a very great extent, on a large farm near Hull, estimates the expense of the cultivation of chicory there at 4l. 5s. 6d. per acre, and if we add to this 2l. 10s. for rent, manure, &c., it gives 6l. 15s. 6d. The produce on suitable land he states to be from 8 to 12 tons per acre, and it requires 4 tons of green root to make 1 ton of dried. In the dried state the root is worth from 12l. to 24l. per ton. Take 10 tons per acre, at 2l. 10s. per ton, and this would leave a profit per acre of 18l. 4s. 6d.

Another competent agricultural authority states that the price of 2¼ tons of dry root for the acre, at 12l. per ton, would be 27l.; deducting 7l. for rent, labour, and other expenses, this would leave a profit of 20l. per acre.

The roots are cut into small pieces of about half-inch or three-quarter inch lengths by a turnip-cutter, or by hand, the object being to have the pieces of as uniform a size as possible. The slices are then dried in a kiln: this process wasting the chicory from 75 to 80 per cent. It is then marketable, and is usually sold to the drysalters and grocers, who roast and grind it as they do coffee. In the ground state it may be kept for years, but it soon cakes. The roasted root is emptied into iron vessels, and, after cooling, is crushed in vertical stone mills, or between iron cylinders.

The dried roots cut are roasted in this country like coffee. The loss during roasting is from 25 to 30 per cent. The roasters generally introduce into the roasting machine about 2 lbs. of lard for every cwt. of chicory. Some say this is to give the chicory a better face, others state that it renders the powder less hygrometric. Inferior kinds of chicory are alleged to be coloured with Venetian red.

Chicory is occasionally adulterated with roasted pulse (called Hambro’ powder), damaged corn, and coffee husks (“coffee flights,” as they are technically termed). We have also heard of parsnips having been roasted, ground, and mixed with chicory. Dr. Hassall gives a long list of other substances which have been found as adulterants of coffee.

Treacle is sometimes introduced into fictitious chicory, to give the caramel or saccharine odour possessed by real chicory.

Dr. Hassall says the roasted chicory root yields from 45 to 65 per cent. of soluble extractive. Its solution in water is acid, and it does not possess the peculiar bitter taste of the raw root; but the taste of the liquid is more like that of burnt sugar. The copper test shows the presence of from 10 to 13 per cent. of sugar.