The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-11-10
THE LATEST FRAUD.

!, etltuto loI COue6 mig MY eAtOiieu W
one G. f. Cole of Buckner, Mo-, ant
described by him as "new and won
derful product" The plant was sale
to be OF easy growth and very prolific
yielding from fifty to sixty bushels o
, berries to the acre, which, wher
y purched and ground. supplied bev
erage so much like coffee that a very
acute taste was required to detect the
difference.
This valuable plant was called by
it's boomer "Cole's Domestic Coffee
, Berry," and offered for sale at the
modest price of twenty-five cents pei
100 seeds, or $3.50 per pound, if lur-
chased in large quantities. Novelties
are proverbially high priced
and progressive people pay ungrudg.
ingly for anything that gives promise
of good results.
, Doubtless many have responded to
Coles alluring advertisement and got
his novelty" at several hundred per
cent more than its actual market
value.
The plant is possibly as valuable as
he describes 1t and may make a good
substitute for coffee, but the fraud lies
in his naming of it and the outrageous
price charged.
Prof. n. j. Redding, director of the
Georgia experiment station, has ex-
posed the fraud and written that the
much doomed 'coffee berry" is simply
The Japan pea or SOFA hispida, COM
monty known as the Sofa bean.
have cultivated the bean and it is
vry productive and nutritious,
both for human and animal
food, but seed can be bought
at So per bushel.
Prof. Plumb of the Indiana station,
writing on the same subject says
awe have been growing SOFA beans
this season on an experimental plat.
AS a green crop, the SEASONS expert
ence would not warrant recommend.
ing it to Indiana farmers, as the plaut
only attained q height of fifteen
inches and was not very stocky. AS a
forage plant L wish to give it Il further
trial here before passing judgment on
1t. Sofa beans, however, are worthy
of notice from another standpoint.
Last year an intelligent farmer in
this county came to me with samples
of the bean rOsted as for coffee.
He stated that he had used
them for this purpose for
several years, and that his
family enjoyed a drink from this
source, He gave me some of his
roasted beans and we ground them !
and used them in our family coffee |
pot, and found them very agreeable |
My wife voted them better than cocoa |
shells and without doubt drink from
SOFA beans is more nutritious than
one from either coffee or cocoa SHELF
Many substitutes for coffee are used
and l deem this the best yet brought
to my attention."
If our tanners would plant small
piece of ground 10 sofa beans and al
lew the seeds to ri ell in the pods be-
fore threshing and after they have be.
come well dried, roast them, feel
sure that many of them would have
better and more wholesome drink
than from the poor grades of coffee
beans SO often sold to those who can
not discriminate quality in coffee.
HORTICULTURAL.
The farmer who plants a few apple
or pear trees or ten or dozen grape
vines, will probably lot have much
fruit to sell, but when they come inloI
bearing he will have the best food TOT
his family that the largest capitalist
IN the world longs for and cannot sur
pass. His profits may not come in
the selling, but it Will surely come in
the added pleasure to his family and
their better health. The more good
fruit We have the better our health,
the higher our enjoyment, the better
our temper and the less necessity is
telt tor the doctor and his medicine
BY all means have an ample supply
OF fruit on the farm as well as on YOUR
own table.
The Jasper Golden Russell pear is as
much curiosity, in so far as shape il
concerned, as the peen to among
peaches. 1t is scarcely more than two
inches and hall in diameter from the
stem to the calyx, while it is nearly
oDe-third more in diameter, measured
al right angles. 1t fruits very eally
and abuDdaDtly nd the fruit is val
ned for culinary use. 1t is claimed
that its thick tough, leathery leaves
adopt the tree to dry, hot climates
where the ordinary kinds cannot live
A writer in the New York tribune
relates his experience with hardwood
ashes applied to peach trees. He has
two peach trees of the same variety
standing twenty-foar feet apart in
sod. Both bore full crops last season
and both blossomed full this year.
Two bushels of hard wood, unleached
ashes were spread under one, out as
far as the branches extended; but
none under the other. The former
bore this season two bushels of large, ]
well-colored fruit and the latter but
twenty-thrte small, inferior, uncol, s
ored specimens.
p. j. Berckmans the well known I
fruit grower says that "rosette" that {
dreadful enemy to peach and plum
trees, has of late years appeared
throughout many sections of the
South, and unless the utmost vigilance ,
Is practiced, disasterOus results to the y,
peach growing industry will follow. 9
The disease appears in the spring and :.
IN affected trees the leaves assume a :
yellow and sickIy appearance, are =
small and crowded in bunch. The y
tree seldom survives the first summer, :
y