The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-06

ing upon many Of the plantations Is done
by the pound the usual price being about
a cent and a half per pound. 1t takes a
good picker to average fifty pounds a
day, but as the whole family can work
at 1T the peon does fairly well In the
coffee regions at picking time.
IN THE COFFEE FACTORIES.
I find the Porto Rican coffee factories
quite different from those Of Brazil. The
most of them are rude in the extreme.
They have not the fine machinery nor the
economical methods of the Brazilians.
In Brazil the berries are first mashed
to pulp, which takes off their flesh.
The seeds or beans are taken out and
dried in the sun, and within a short time
are on their way to the market There
the machinery is run by steam. Here
oxen and men take the place Of ma
ch1nery, and the methods OF preparation
for the market are slow and expensive.
The berries are first stored away in the
great plantation house or factory of the
planter. The buildings are rude in the
extreme They are usually high up on
piles, and so arranged that fiat boxes,
some Of which are as large as a city
lot, can be rolled at will in and out from
under the floor. These great trays are
used for drying the coffee beans after
the flesh has been taken off Of them. 1t
is necessary that the coffee should not be
rained upon while drying, and the shov-
ing it under the building protects 1t from
the heavy dews of the night.
In some places the coffee Is dried on
cement floors, but 1t requires from two
weeks to a month to properly cure it, and
such floors have to be covered up at
time Of rain, and the coffee IS often taken
in at night.
The getting the seeds out of the berry
IT,
roller which moves over the berries so
adjusted that it will mash the berries,
but not crush the seeds. AS soon as the
seeds have been freed from the pulp they
are dried. They are still covered with
two thin shells which must be removed
before they are ready for shipment This
Is done In hulling mills, and the beans
are then polished by running over and
through them great wheels faced with
tin. The wheels are so adjusted that they
do not injure the coffee beans, but by
rubbing them over and over burnlsh them
so that they shine as If vanished. In
some mills coloring matter is added to
give the coffee a blue tint
Much of the hulling Of the coffee IS done
in great mortars made Of wood, men
standing before them and letting great
pestles drop on the coffee, thus breaking
the shells. These wooden moftars are Of
about the height Of your waist. I see
them everywhere, and have done not a
little coffee hulling myself by expert
menting with them.
AMONG THE COFFEE SORTERs.
After the coffee has been dried and
cleaned it must be graded. In some of
the factories this is done by machinery
the coffee being run over wire screens
with meshes Of different sizes. The little
round beans which form the very best of
the product, and which look just like
Mocha coffee, drop into one bag. The
largest of the f1at-sided beans go into
another, and other grades into other
bags.
Machines, however, do not take out the
bad grains. This must be done by the
coffee sorters. In every large Porto
Rican factory you find women picking
over the coffee grains and separating the
good from the bad. In the smaller fac
tories the picking is done sitting on the
floor before low box covered with cloth
In the larger ones there are long tables
cut up into little boxes by many partt-
lions, and before each box a Porto Rican
girl sits with a pile of green coffee beans
before her. She picks these over and
over, handling coffee from sunrise until
sunset.
During my stay in Porto Rico I visited
factories where hundreds Of these girls
were sorting coffee. I made some photo
graphs of them at work much to the
amusement of all. They are black-eyed
brown-skinned- maidens with eyes as
laughing the Italian coffee pickers of
Brazil. Not a few show signs of negro
blood. and some are quite black They
sing as they work and are evidently not
dissatisfied with their condition Their