Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-02-18
CUP THAT CHEERS.
THE WAY OUR MORNING APPE-
TIER is GATHERED.

MOunds-lIOw Coffee Is Graded
Brazil Letter to San Francisco Chronicle.
On journey from Sac Paulo to a
neighboring coffee plantation learned
how forest land is cleared in Brazil
The forests are an impcnetrable mass
of trees, vines and underground. They
first go through with bill hook. cut
ting enough of the underground to en-.
able them to get ut the trees. Then
with an AK, for a space of about fifty
yards, all the trees are cut half down.
One tree is then selected and felled in
such Il manner that it will fell all OF
the half-cut trees. After forty or fifty
days the piece of land is burned over,
and in the midst of whatever is left
the tree are planted.
The ground is cultivated with the
hoe often enough to keep the bushes
from growing. For three years corn
is planted between the rows of young
trees.
In the younger orchards the trees
are planted eighteen palms or twelve
feet apart. They are never pruned
until they are forty or fifty years old,
when some of the old wood is cut out,
and they look more like bushes than
trees. On the same tree at the same
time may be seen the white blossom
and the green, red (ripc), and dark
purplish dead ripe and dry) berries.
These, against the dark-green foliage,
look very beautiful.
On this fayenda to pick the coffee a
large cloth is spread under the trees.
The man, woman or child then takes
hold of the limb close to the base and
runs the hand along. stripping the
limb of everything, leaves, fruit
and blossoms. When the coffee is all
picked from that tree. the leaves are
shaken out and the coffee emptied on
the ground in pile in some place Sc
lected by the picker, and is afterward
shoveled into measure with n shovel
shaped out OF the limb of tree, and
from there is emptied into the OK
cart that is to take it to the drying
grounds. On the steepest hills the
coffee is emptied into bags and brought
down on the backs of men.
Whole families 60 into the field to
pick the coffee, as that is the chief
money-earning time OF the year.
Each family takes a row, and must
stick to that row until it is picked
clean. Some rows are better than
others, so they are chosen by lot.
Seven bags is good days work for
man. and family which picks twenty
bags a day is in fair way to become
rich. They are paid GOO reis bag,
which, according to exchange in June,
would be about nine cents. Since
then exchange has been higher, so
that the amount per bag has been
less. The bag holds about l2S pounds.
The coffee is brought to the "ter-
retro" in OK carts drawn by ten or
twelve oxen. 1t is first emptied into
a tank and thoroughly washed. The
dryest rises first, and is carried down
with the water to any part of the ter
retro desired and emptied into large
strainer. Here stand two men with
wooden shOvels or rakes who keep the
strainer clear, piling the coffee up
around them until they are buried
nearly waist deep. When all has been
washed and sent down the work of
spreading begins. 1t is first spread in
little mounds, almost touching, and
left SO for several days, while the hull
molds and rots. 1t is said that this
does not injure the seed and makes
the hull come off easier in the ma.
chimes after it is dried. Around these
mounds the children, ragged, dirty
and barefooted, run and play, jumping
into the middle of one whenever they
take q notion. After a few days the
coffee is spread in rows over the ter
retro, and then turned often with
scrapers made of wood and pushed by
one or two men. 1t takes a month or
little longer to dry the coffee, de-
pending upon the weather. During
the first week or two rain does no
harm, but later it will cause the ker-
nal to mold, inferior coffee being the
result.
In every coffee berry there are two
seeds. The Mocha, or best quality, is
the undeveloped grain that grows at
the ends of the limbs. The Java is
the best developed, and grows about
the center of the limb. That next
the trunk is the Rio. The Mocha
brings the first price and the Java the
second.
AGNES Smith, the 7-year-old daugh-
tor OF C. B. Smith, of Seattle, was
killed by an electric car last week.