The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1854-01-26
a certain Mr.. Twas already making
FIVE hundred year,"
Coffee Culture i'm Java.

The Coffee must grow in the shade and :,
therefore, the gardens resemble a forest
more than a plantation. The tree most
frequently taken to shade the coffee is
the dadnop, beautiful looking tree with
large red blossoms, which are set off ex-
traordinarily well by the far darker foli-
age of the coffee. The coffee bushes
which grow, if left alone, to trees of at
least height of forty feet, and sometimes
more, are cut down to from fifteen to
eighteen feet; less, is possible, and this IS
high enough, where the ripe fruit has to
be taken down by human hands. The
coffee tree must be sufficiently known to
the English readers to render unnecessa-
ry a more minute description; but 1t Is
not generally known that these gardens,
as in fact; nearly all plantations in Java,
are not kept by lnud proprietors, but By
government, who give them in charge of
certain men to overlook, get the fruits
brought in prepared for the market, and
grant them for this certain and veT-
good percentage. The planting OF the
trees, as with nearly all the other cult
vations, government or the directory 5<
the cultures secs done; government aiso
forces tue natives, at certain times of the
year, to work for a certain amount o.
money. These coffee gardens are dIyi j.
ed into larger regular squares, and t.
different inhabitants of the neig ghborln4
bampongs have their particular districts,
where they pluck the ripe coffee eherries
and carry them to the mill, getting paiu
for the quantity they bring in by til
weight; being obliged, however, to finish
the district in a stated time. The cofee
planters have to deliver certain stipu-
ulated quantity to government for their
percentage; what more they are able TO
raise they receive a higher price fer
from government, but only from govern
ment, for they are not allowed to sell u
to any one else; and even the Assistant
Resident in Bandong, the Grst person il
the district, had to send down to Batavia
/ for the coffee he wanted for his own use.
/ The coffee mills, where the ripe coffee
! is freed of its husk first, and afterwards
dried are very simple. The process of
/ drying the coffee berries is rather tedious,
since the coffee is enclosed in a kind Of
cherry-in size and even taste not unlike
our own, only far sweeter-which has TO
be removed. For this purpose, the whole
coffee cherries are thrown into large stone
vats, where they lie a certain time IN
water, to loosen their flesh, or at least to
open or soften it. After this they are
taken out and dried in the sun, large
sheds being provided. which run on little
wheels in kind of railroad, to cover
those places where the coffee is placed to
dry, directly as shower, frequent in the
latitude, should set in. The coffee-the
shells now partly roasted off-thrown in
to mill, which is provided with large
water -wheel-a machine that will be i'm
proved in short time. As yet it con-
sists of long circular trough, in which
large stone is continually rolled round,
by water power, to crush the dry shells,
while small rake, following the stone.
loosens those parts that have been pres
sed down too hard. The trough is about
fifteen inches wide, and set up in circle
so as to enable the stone, which goes out
from the main and upright standing shaft
by an arm from which it is suspended by
a chain, to be pulled over the coffee husks.
The cherries are sifted afterWard; but the
stone is not able to press upon all of them
with equal force since the coffee cherries
are of unequal size; and the consequence
is the small ones remain untouched, and
require afterwards very tedious CLEAN
ing. But the most slow aud laborious
work is the asserting afterwards the
cleansed berries, which has 10 be done q
with the tea, by women ana children; bus
it is far more disagreeable, as.tbe coffee
in its dry and crushed husks holds All
immense quantity Of dust. Only where
work can be had, as in Java, by CON-
handing a certain number of people to
come, and by paying them afterwards
whatever wages the employer THINKS ft /,
not what the laborers may ask, or solely
by slave labor, can such produce be eul-
tivated proftably. Singular is the way
that coffee is used in the country where
it grows wild-Sumatra-by the natives;
! for they only take off the young leaves
from the tree aud make kind of tea of
J them.
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