The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-07-23
How Coffee is Cultivated.

The manner of cultiyating the coffee plant
varies but little in the several Central
American States, and a short sketch of how
their favorite beverage is produced may be
interesting to all good coffee drinkers
| The coffee beans are first planted in hot
beds, from which, in u few months, they
sprout, and shoot up five OF six inches high,
when they are removed singly and taken to
the fields which have been prepared to re-
ceive them. There the young sprouts are
planted anew, i'll rows, with space of from
four to six feet between each plant. For
two years they need no more care, except
an occasional blowing out of the weeds
which spring up around them. The third
year the plant is from three to four feet
high, and commences to bear, producing
about pound of coffee fruit. Each year
adds to the size and produetiveness of the
tree, till it reaches about ten feet in highth,
after which it gives a product of from
twenty to thirty pounds of green fruit.
The coffee fruit resembles in shape, size
and color a plump cranberry, and grows
clingng close to the small, lateral branches
of the tree so that the hand can at once
strip off the fifty OF more berries branch
may bear. On some plantations, the trees
arc dwarfed, for the double purpose of
increasing the fruitage and facilitating the
picking.
The time of picking the crop varies,
according to the locality, but ranges from
Dncpmlnr n haro1, a.
ripe, all hands are employed-men, women
and children-and as fast as picked the ber-
rles are sent to the mills, which, arranged
something like cornshelers, remove the
pulpy coverings the kernels, which
are Immediately spread out in the sun to
dry. At this time the skies are watched
carefully, and in case of rain, the kernels
are rapidly gathered under shelter, as rain
upon them while drying would cause an
irreparable injury and, on some planta-
lions, machines for drying by hot air have
been introduced. After few days in the
sun, the kernels become dry and crispy;
they are then thrown into circular trough,
large wooden rollers, shed with iron, crush
the shell, and liberate the two beans which
each shell contains. The bean has still
another coating-its skin-which is the
hardest of all to remove, but, through long
continued attrition with the iron-shod roll
ers, this, also, is mostly removed, and then
the fannng-mill cleans the bean by blowing
away the loosened skin and broken shells.
But the most expensive part of the pro-
cess is now to come. Before long tables sit
the natives, young and old chattering,
laughing and singing as they work, and on
these tables are poured the beans as they
come from the tanning mill. Each Indian
holds Il basket in his or her lap, and with
both hands rapidly picks out, separately,
every perfect bean, till there remains on the
table nothing but broken and imperfect
coffee, of no value. The hands are paid,
at this work, so much per quintal, of one
hundred pounds, and skillfur pickers make
good wages. 1t takes six hundred and sixty
pounds Of the fruit, as it comes from the
tree, to produce one hundred pounds of
clean, marketable cof1ee-and yet, it pays.
OrerlapI MOHtLlV