Iron County register., 1888-07-26
COFFEE CULTURE.
Growth of the Cuban Berry and Its Prepa-
ration for the Market.


ration for the Market.
Nothing can be more beautiful and
interesting than studies of the annual
blooming, budding. growth and ripen-
ing of coffee, and it's gathering and
preparation for the market. The
leaves, which are ovate in form. are
about four inches long. They are op-
posite each other in pairs, and are
dark green in color. Similar in texture
to the mammee leaf, they have the
waxen surface of the Indian laurel.
The foliage is perennial. Shooting
out from the basis of these pairs of
leaves, after the manner of our cherry
blooms, are seen the coffee blossoms.
almost precisely like dimiutive tube
rose, in clusters from three to six
snowwhite and with an indescribably
delicate. subtle and delicious odor. For
two months in the spring time a coffee
plantation is simply one vast plain of
white. a region of intoxicating odor,
with the blue sky half shut
from sight by hundreds of
honey-seeking butterflies, humming
birds and brilliant-winged song
sters fluttering and circling in an ap-
parent ecstasy of revelry and delight.
For nearly six months new blossoms
come as old ones disappear. Blossom
and ripening berries are continuous.
AS the breezes snow the dying bios
SONS upon the ground, tiny green but
tons take their place. These are the
growing fruit. They change to pale
pink; then to a bright cherry; finally
to reddish purple. Then it is ripe
and ready for gathering. In Arabia
where the climate permits the ripen-
ing and drying of the berries upon the
tree, it is gathered by shaking the ber-
ries upon blankets laid beneath. Here
it is picked in baskets, piled at con-
venient places, and drawn in carts to
the quarters and at once put in great
estanques or tanks of cement. At this
stage it is called, cereza, or CHERRY"
and is given ''three waters that is,
stirred thoroughly in three changes of
fresh water which removes the saccha-
rine and floats into other tanks refuse
and worthless berries. 1t is then
spread upon secaderos or drying places.
These are fiat platforms of cement and
charcoal, into the basin-like circular
portion of which the drying coffee is
drawn at three o'clock, each afternoon,
in piles, and covered for protection
from night dews with casillas or man.
aca palm-leaf coops. This process is
continued almost three weeks, or until
the coffee is proven" that is dry
enough to permit removal of the sec
ond skin, or the real shell of the berry,
when it is called pergamo. 1t is now
taken to the warehouse and stored for
time to ''gain color" and then to the
molino or mill where it is run through
heavy wooden rollers. This breaks the
brittle shell and separates the twin
berries. Then an aventador or huge
winnowing machine removes from the
mass of grayish-yellow seeds the chatf
collected at the molinO. 1t is now said
TO be in ''oro,n or in its golden
state. iEom it's color, and is
now taken back to the mill mil
through which it is run with dry
corn-husks for friction and polish. 1t
is again winnowed, and is then piled
upon porch-floors, or in any convenient
receptacles, and ''culled." the broken
and small dark beans being removed,
this residue. which is supplied to the
negro laborers for coffee, being called
trirache. There is but one more proc
ess. The single or raw ''male" berryis
extraordinarily priced. and commands
the highest price. The coffee is sep
arated by being shunted down inclin-
ing board frames from which the round
berries, or cafe de caracollio, rolls. to
stationary benches while the double.
or fiat, beans remain. After this rapid
assortment it is weighed in hundred
pound sacks, or quintals, and is ready
for the market at Trinidad, to which
picturesque old city every pound is
conveyed on the backs of donkeys and
mules.-Edgar L. Wdkemdn, tn Brook
Ign argus.