Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-06
MXPORTING COFFEE.
The JOURNEY FROM THE BRAZILIAN
ORCHARD TO THE OCEAN.

ago Undergoes many experiences oe-
fore It Comes Before Us Hot and
steaming--How the Berry Is Secured.
Coffee is not a shrub, as is generally
SUPPOSED, but tree, which, if allowed
10 20 untrimmed, would attain twenty
feet or more in height, but which is gen.
orally kept down to eight or ten feet for
convenience in picking. A grove can
be started by burying the berries or
from slips. The latter are preferable
placed about six feet apart, and those
plants which have been taken from the
nursery with considerable earth around
their roots will bear fruit in two years,
though their full yield is not attained
under four years. It is calculated that
1000 thrifty trees will yield on fair
average 5000 pounds of coffee per an
mum, but in some parts of San Paulo
province the yield is as high as 6,50e
pounds. There are two and sometimes
three harvests to year, but after fifteen
or twenty years the old trees must be
cut down to give place to new ones.
When fully ripe the berry is about the
size, shape and color of large cram
berry. The tough red skin incloses two
grains or seeds. The old way of prepar-
ing it for market, still much used In
Brazil, was as follows: When the berries
have acquired a rich blood red they are
picked into bags by the negroes, twenty
three pounds being considered fair
days work for one picker. The bags
are then eulptied on the terreno or dry
ing place, which is generally level
piece of ground beaten smooth or COW
cred with cement. After few days in
the sun the outer skin becomes black,
hard and shriveled, and then the berries
are pounded in huge wooden mortars
until the skins are broken without in
juring the tough grains.
BY sitting, the skins and grains are
separated and the latter are again spread
out in the sun until the pellicle envelop-.
ing each grain is dry as dust. Then
they are again subjected to the mortars
and the winnowing fan, and are ready
for sale or immediate consumption.
The improved method now in vogue on
the wealthier estates consists in drying
the freshly picked grains on wooden
trays or pavements, by which they
escape the earthly favor acquired when
dried on the bare ground, and the outer
and inner envelopes are removed by
passing them through two mills.
The main feature of the first mill is
horizontal copper cylinder, whose sur
face is roughened after the manner of
rasp. 1t revolves against board, be-
tween which and the teeth space is left
for the grains to pass, but not the husks.
The grains drop into water and are left
to soak twelve hours, in which time the
parchmentlike film that envelops each
seed is softened. They are spread out
again on trays in the sun, and when
thoroughly dry are passed through the
second mill, which resembles those used
for grinding plaster, except that the
two vertical rolling disks are of wood.
six feet in diameter and five inches
thick, their light weight abrading the
pellicles without injuring the grains.
Then the tanner is brought into requisi-
ton and the berries are put in bags for
transportation.
The freight on sack of coffee Q38
pounds) is about one cent per mile;
therefore, coffee coming from the end
of the Dom Pedro II railway must pay
in the neighborhood of four dollars the
sack for transportation to the shipping
point-one-third of it's value when de-
ivered in Rio. From Rio to New York
the freight rarely exceeds sixty cents a
sack, and it is often as low as twenty
FIVE cents. Thus fifty miles of railroad
carriage in the country where it grows
costs more than 5000 miles of ocean.
Many of the planters still send their
coffee to market by mule train, consid-
ering that the cheaper way of transpor-
tation.
The entrance into Santos Of mule
train from the interior is something
worth seeing. The train is always pre-
ceded by a white horse wearing string
of bells, and the mules obediently follow
the leader. Sometimes troops of several
hundred arrive in morning, and again
there are weeks when none appear.
Every mule brings two bags of coffee on
his back. Having made long, slow jour.
neys, often hundreds of miles, the ami
mails are pitiable looking objects wher
their burdens are removed, for the con
stant saving of the loads has not only
abraded the skin, but in many instances
ground off the flesh to the bone.
The bags are dumped in huge piles il
the custom house yards, and around
them cargadores Immediately colec
like swarms of black bees. There is al
export duty to pay, and every bag mus
be pierced and sample withdrawn il
order to determine the quality and the
duty thereon. The tariff, based on the
market price, is regulated anew every
Saturday.
The sampling instrument is bras.
tube, shaped exactly like pen. Wher
the point is pushed into a sack Of coffee
the berries run down through the tube
and after handful has been abstractet
the instrument is withdrawn and it,
point turned over like a crochet hook
thus closing the opening. The operation
occupies only few seconds, and the
samples" taken out amount to many
tons in the course of year. They, to
gether with all samples of exported sug
ars, are presented to the lepers' hospital
The gangs of cargadores employed il
"toting" the coffee away from the Gus
tom house and loading it upon waiting
vessels are feature of Santos. Naked
except from waist to knees, their choco.
late colored hides glisten in the sun and
%hafv tod