The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1843-11-21
COFFEE.

Coffee drinkers will perhaps like to read the
following description of the process Of raising
coffee, and preparing it for market, in Havana
which we extract from one Of the entertaining
Heroglyphics" in the New Orleans Picayune
The seed is first planted in nursery, as il
were; while il is sprouting up into into young
tree or plant, the field for its transpantation--
sometimes covering hundreds OF acres--is being
weeded and prepared. When the saplings at
tain the proper age and growth, they are taken
up and planted for permanent purposes in the
coffee field. They are put down in rows at dis
tances from each other Of from four to six feet
longitudinally, and from six to eight feet lattu-
dinally. Here they remain until they are worn
out, bearing coffee in some soils for period as
long as twenty years. The field being thus
planted, the whole of the planters attention,
year after year, is now directed, first to keeping
the plantation clean, and entirely free from
weeds, for this is indispensably necessary to the
good and wholesome growth Of the trees, next
in trimming the trees, so as to prevent them
reaching higher altitude than the coffee can
be plucked from them by the hand, or extending
their branches too wide, thereby preventing the
pickers from passing so easily around them. Sc
condly, in plucking or picking off the coffee ber-
ries from the tree at the proper season; and
thirdly, in preparing it for market. The weed
ing is done with great care-not so much as a
single blade grass is to be discovered among the
coffee trees, covering entire acres, and thus the
whole power of the soil, which is of a heavy
reddish color, preserved for their nourshment.
Round the bounds of the coffee field, and at con-
venient distances through them, there are walks
or avenues, the margins Of which are laid out
with great taste, and planted with palm, orange,
and other trees, giving it great beauty; indeed,
a coffee plantation seems to be nothing more or
less than an overgrown but well tended garden.
II affords Snrna SSinc sweet nprfilmp and when
the trees are in flower, when the berries are red
some still being green-it is picturesque be-
yond anything.
As the tree does not send forth all its blossoms
simultaneously, portion of berries become ripe
before the rest, and hence the process of picking
is repeated at different periods. The blossom
first shoots forth in the latter par6of April or
May, and next in the latter part of May or the
early part of June. The berry first assumes a
10 deep red The pulling is performed in
August and September. The general process of
preparing the coffee for market is this: 1t is
first placed on a glazer of circular shape and
smoothly plastered surface, built expressly for
the purpose, in a quantity rating about twelve
inches in depth. This is done for the purpose Of
roofing the shell or husk Of the berries, every
one of which contains two or twin grains Of
coffee. 1t is next, on the same glazier, but in
less quantities, dried by exposure to the sun
when dried, it is put in circular mill or trough,
where wheel, passing over it, breaks off the
shell and clears the grain from all membranes.
1t is next winnowed, by which the broken
husks are blown off from the grain, and lastly it
is picked or assorted, the pickers using their
hands alone and having no aid from machinery,
dividing the crop, grain by grain into their diff
ferent classes-superior middling, and inferior.
1t is then put up for market