The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-09-16
fHE CULTURE OF COFFEE.
RAISING AND PREPARING THE BEAN
FOR MARKET IN BRAZIL.


Piantation-Piekins and Drying tn.
Berries Operations OF the Mills =
Transporting In Bags by Mule Trains
Coffee is not shrub, as il is generally
supposed, but a tree which, If allowed to
go untrimmed, would attain twenty feet
or more in height, but W hich is generally
kept down to eight or ten feet for con-
venience in picking, writes a contributor
to the Providence Journal. 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. 1t is calculated that 1000 thrifty
trees will yield on a fair average 5000
pounds OF coffee per annum, but in some
parts of San Paulo province the yield is
as high as $500 pounds. There are two
and sometimes three barvests 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 Gran berry.
The tough, red skin incloses two grains
or seeds. The old way of preparing 1t
for market, still much used in Brazil,
was as follows: When the berries have
acquired 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
emptied on the terreno, or drying place,
which is generally level piece OF ground
beaten smooth or covered with cement.
After few days in the sun the outer skin
becomes black, hard and shrivelled, and
then the berries are pounded in huge
wooden mortars until the skins are broken,
without injuring 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 as 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
weaithiest estates consists in drying the
freshly picked grains on wooden trays or
pavements, by which they escape the
earthly flavor acquired when dried on the
bare ground, and the outer and inner en-
velopes are removed by passing them
through two mills.
The main feature of the first mill is a
horizontal copper cylinder, whose surface
is roughened after the manner of a rasp.
1t reyolves against board, between
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
parchment like film that envelopes each
seed is softened. They are spread out
again on trays in the sun, and when thor
oughly dry are passed through the second
mill, which resembles those used for
grinding plaster, except that the two
vertical rolling discs are of wood, six feet
in diameter and five inches thick, their
light weight abrading the pellicles with
out injuring the grains. Then the tanner
is brought into requisition, and the ber
ries are put into bags for transportation.
The freight on a sack of coffee (13S
pounds), is about one cent per mile;
therefore coffee, coming from the end of
the Dom Pedro II. Railway must pay the
in the neighborhood of "a the sack for
to the shipping point-one
third of it's value when delivered 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 5, 200 miles
of ocean. Many of the planters still send
their coffee to market by mule train, con-
that the cheaper way of trans
portation.
The entrance into Santos of mule train
from the interior is something worth see
ing. The train is always preceded by
white horse, wearing string of bells,
and the mules obediently follow the
leader. Sometimes troops of several hun
dred 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 journeys, often
hundreds of miles, the animals are pitia-
BILE looking objects when their burdens
are removed, for the constant 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 in
the Custom House yards, and around
them cargadores Immediately collect like
swarms OF black bees. There is an ex-
port duty to pay, and every bag must be
pierced and a sample withdrawn in order
to determine the quality and the duty
thereon. The tariff, based on the market
price, is regulated every Saturday.
The sampling instrument is a brass
tube, shaped exactly like pen. When
the point is pushed into sack of coffee
the berries run down through the tube,
and after a handful has besn distracted
the instrument is withdrawn and its
point turned over like crochet hook,
thus closing the opening. The operation
occupies only a few seconds, and the
81 samples " taken out amount to many
tons in the course of year. They, to-
gether with all samples of exported
sugars, are presented to the lepers'
hospital.
The gangs of cargadores employed in
@ toting" the coffee away from the Gus
tom House and loading it upon waiting
vessels are a feature of Santos. Naked.
except from waist to knees, their choco-
late colored hides glisten N the sun, and
their well cultivated muscles stand out
like whip-cords. Each gang has its
leader, generally the tallest and most
powerful negro among them, who carries
a rattle to the music OF which his fol-