Part 7 (1/2)

There are some plants that have just come up, and some that are ready to transplant. They are set out in rows, six or eight feet apart each way, and sometimes more.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 34.--A Coffee Nursery.]

The trees would grow much taller than those you see in the picture, if they were not kept pruned. Do you know why they are prevented from growing tall? Whenever you look at a coffee plantation, you see the dark green foliage of the tree, which is an evergreen. Lupe is very fond of the blossoms. They are clear white and very fragrant.

A tree will yield a small amount the second year after planting, but it will not produce a full crop for five or more years. Two pounds is a good average crop for a tree.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 35.--Picking Coffee.]

The children like to watch the pickers as they go from tree to tree.

Many of them are about their own age. Some carry a sack slung over the shoulders, and others carry baskets or pails. The _berries_ must be picked by hand, for they do not all ripen at once. They are dark scarlet in color and look a little like cranberries. A good picker gathers about three bushels in a day. The pickers are given a check every time they fill a basket. Sometimes Juan tends to this work, and he enjoys it very much. At the end of each week the pickers are paid according to the number of checks they have.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 36.--Coffee Berries.]

Within the berry are two kernels or seeds, with their flat sides together. These are called ”coffee beans.” It is these beans from which the drink is made.

The picking is but a small part of the work of preparing coffee for the market. The first operation is removing the pulp. This used to be done by tramping on the berries, but now it is done in a better way.

The berries are thrown into a large tank filled with water, which carries them through a pipe to the pulping machine. This machine removes the pulp and separates the beans.

Next the beans are carried to a second tank, where they remain for about twenty-four hours, to wash off a sticky substance which covers the sh.e.l.l of the bean.

If you have ever put beans or peas into a basin of water, you have noticed that nearly all of them sink, while a few float. These latter are the poor ones. This is the way in which the good and bad coffee beans are separated. A pipe carries off the seeds that float on the surface of the water.

The beans are dried on cement floors upon which they are spread. This drying takes a long time. Before sunset each day the coffee must be carried under shelter, for the dew injures it. While they are drying, the workmen stir them. Sometimes artificial heat is used, but this is expensive. Juan's father has a watchman whose duty it is to guard the coffee at night, for it is very valuable.

Each bean is covered by a strong sh.e.l.l, or hull, which has to be removed. The soaking has loosened this, and so it comes off easier than it otherwise would. Juan and Lupe often watch the wheels of the huller as they turn, moved by patient oxen.

There are two wheels set upright over a circular box, into which the coffee is put. As it pa.s.ses between the wheels and the bottom of the box, the hulls are removed. Underneath the hull is a thin skin, which is also taken off.

In some countries people want the coffee dyed or colored. A bluish color is given to it by coating the wheels of the hulling machine with lead.

The hulls are separated from the beans in a winnowing machine, and the coffee is then sorted. Often this is done by hand. The beans are spread out on a table, and girls and boys, and sometimes grown persons, sort it into several grades.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 37.--Sorting and sacking Coffee.]

Juan's father has this work done by machinery. The coffee is put into a cylinder, in the bottom of which there are holes of different sizes by which it is graded.

The last process is to sack the coffee and send it by railroad to Rio Janeiro. Of course it is neither roasted nor ground until it reaches its destination.

We do not produce coffee in our country, but we are the greatest coffee drinkers in the world. A large part of our supply comes from Brazil.

Trace the course of the s.h.i.+p from Rio Janeiro to New York. Juan has often done this, and his father has promised to take him with him sometime, when he goes with a cargo of coffee.

You naturally think that coffee of different names must come from different countries, or at least from different trees. This is not always the case. Several brands may come from the same tree. The name depends partly upon the size and the general appearance of the beans.

Coffee is a native of the far East, but it has gradually been transplanted to other countries, until it is now very extensively used.

Brazil, Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, the Hawaiian Islands, Java, Ceylon, and Arabia are coffee-raising countries.