Part 10 (2/2)

What is a spinning jenny?--a Jacquard loom?

What are the specific differences between cotswold and merino wool?

Why were most of the cloth-making mills of the United States built at first in the New England States?

How is the silk-making industry encouraged in the United States?

What are the chief linen manufacturing countries?

FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE

Obtain specimens of the cotton seed, boll, raw cotton (sea island, Peruvian, and ordinary), cotton thread, calico, gingham, domestic, canvas, and some of the fancy textiles such as organdie, lawn, etc.

Obtain specimens of the coc.o.o.ns of the silk-worm, raw silk gros-grain cloth, pongee, and tussar silk cloth.

Obtain also specimens of merino cloth, cashmere, cheviot, and other similar goods; compare them and note the difference.

Examine the fibres of cotton, silk, and wool under a microscope and note the difference.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRANCH OF COFFEE TREE, WEST BRAZIL]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE PLANTATION NEAR JOLO, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE DRYING FIELD, BRAZIL]

CHAPTER X

PLANT PRODUCTS OF ECONOMIC USE--BEVERAGES AND MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES

It may be a.s.sumed that practically all beverages derived from plants owe their popularity to the stimulant effects they produce. In coffee, tea, cocoa, and mate, the stimulant principle is identical with _cafein_, the active principle of coffee; in liquors it is a powerful narcotic _alcohol_; non-potable substances, tobacco, opium, etc., owe their popularity also to narcotic poisons.

=Coffee.=--The coffee ”beans” of commerce are the seeds of a tree (_Coffea arabica_) probably native to Abyssinia, but now cultivated in various parts of the world. It was introduced into Aden from Africa late in the fifteenth century, and from there its use spread to other cities. Rather singularly its popularity resulted from the strong efforts made to forbid its use.

It was regarded as a stimulant and therefore it was forbidden to followers of Islam.[34] But its power to prevent drowsiness and sleep during the intolerably long religious exercises was a winning feature, and so its use became general in spite of the fulminations against it.

Coffee culture was confined to Arabia until the close of the seventeenth century; it was then introduced into the Dutch East Indies, and for many years the island of Java became the main supply of the world. At the present time, Java is second only to Brazil in coffee production. In the Old World it is now also cultivated along the Guinea coast of Africa, in Madagascar, India, and Ceylon. In the New World the chief areas are Brazil, Venezuela, the Central American States, and the West Indies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE PRODUCING REGIONS]

The coffee-tree may be cultivated in almost any soil that is fertile; it thrives best, however, in red soil. Old, decomposed red lavas produce the choicest beans. Coffee grows in any moist climate in which the temperature does not range higher than 80 F. nor lower than 55 F. An occasional frost injures but does not necessarily kill the trees, which grow better in the shade than in the sunlight. For convenience in gathering the crop, the trees are pruned until they are not higher than bushes.

The fruit of the coffee-tree is a deep-red berry not quite so large as a cherry. A juicy pulp encloses a double membrane, or endocarp, and within the latter are the seeds which const.i.tute the coffee of commerce.

Normally there are two seeds, but in some varieties there is a tendency for one seed to mature, leaving the other undeveloped; this is the ”peaberry” coffee of commerce. The so-called Mocha coffee is a peaberry.

In their preparation the berries are picked when ripe and deprived of their pulp. After pulping they are cured in the sun for about a week and then hulled, or divested of the endocarp, a process requiring expensive machinery. The coffee is then cleaned, and sacked.

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