68 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July i, 1882. 



THE PEOPLE'S COFFEE ROASTER. 

 We give promineuce to this farther communication 

 OQ a very practical and important topic ; without 

 doubt the coffee roaster required should be autom- 

 atic, and eveoything should done that can be done 

 to inance the English peoi)le to roast coffee for them- 

 selves, seeing how they are poisoned at presene by 

 grocers. With our wealth of mechanical skill in Cey- 

 lon, as displayed by patents and new machines, big 

 and little, for years past, why should the coffee roaster 

 of the future not be invented here ? A wide sale 

 might be anticipated for a suitable article. 



The idea of offering a prize for a cheap and effect- 

 ive machine to be independent of the kitchen fire — 

 fed at an infinitesimal cost by oil now in general use 

 and admitting of the flames being lighted and ex 

 tmguished in a moment — seems to be a good one but 

 to make it perfect and to permit of coffee having an 

 equal chance with tea (especially with the working 

 classes, whose time is theh- money) it MUST BE so 



ARRANGED AS TO WORK AUTOMATICALLY. 



Just as, years ago. cheap, old-fashioned clocks, wound 

 lip and kept going for 24 hours by long cords and 

 weights, were hung on cottage walls, in like manner 

 the ' ' Universal Coffee Roaster " must be capable of 

 being placed on the ground in some corner of the 

 kitchen, racket wheels and pulleys, cords and weights 

 so arranged that when the latter were drawn up to 

 a certain heigh* their momentum would prove suffici- 

 ent to set and keep steadily in motion the revolving 

 cylinder below, say for the space of half-an-hour or 

 whatever time it takes to thoroughly roast coffee. 

 Worked in this fashion the machine could not well 

 fail to prove a success, for the housemfe W'ould soon 

 learn to what height the weights should be drawni to 

 admit of the coffee being roasted (trithout further atfen- 

 liov) to the required chestnut hue. A few minutes 

 more or less would probably make a difference 

 in the flavour, but by the method here indicated the 

 exact time required would soon be discovered, and then 

 there would be no difficulty in making every succeed- 

 ing roasting precisely the same. Heated by either oil 

 or gas there would be an end to the uncertainties and 

 troubles necessarily attendant on roasters placed on tlie 

 fire and turned by hand. The addition of a very small 

 piece of butter to the beans when they were placed 

 ou the cylinder and a teaspoonful of sugar just before 

 tlie cylinder performed its final revolution would make 

 the operation an assured success. 



P.S. — Good, sound, green coffee, not less than six 

 montlis old (12 months would be Ijetter), should be 

 purchased, and the cylinder should, of course, not be 

 more than about half filled ; for in the roasting the 

 beans swell rery eonsiclerahly — fully one-third of 

 their original bulk, if I remember correctly. Of course 

 a powerful spring would be preferable to pulleys and 

 weights if the cost would not be prohibitive. 



A SuBSTiTTTTB FOR CiNCHONA. — With reference to 

 the extract from a home paper on this subject, 

 we feel that persons interested in cinchona plant- 

 ations need not prepare to cut them down for fire- 

 wood. Our readers will observe that art has never 

 yet succeeded in the formation of a vegetable alkaloid, 

 and, although it may be possible that M. Mailmen^ 

 has been in some measure successful, the probability 

 is that some element may be wanting, just as in 

 the production of artificial beef. In any case the 

 ahnost certainty is that the artificial product cannot 

 compete In jjrice with that formed in nature's la.ljor- 

 atory and extracted by the Howards and Whifl'ens 

 and other quinologists of our day. 



The Pioneer Tea Steamers may be looked for here 

 in the course of a few days, the Stirling Castle, although 

 shehiis not been the first to getaway, be'n^ here prob- 

 ably about the same time as the Glenfriiin, which 

 stole a march upon her, and, probably somewhat 

 owing to the fact that she was much sooner filled, got 

 away with the first teas from Hankow. — Straits Times. 



Coffee Adulteration. — An e.state proprietor writes : 

 — "Ceylon should show its appreciation of 

 Messrs. Pasteur's and Dickson's adulteration exer- 

 tiins, and the least to be done is to give them 

 thanks from all public bodies in the island, in- 

 cluding the Legislative Council. They are the first 

 to get any satisfaction as to our great grievance, 

 which is of very old standing ; it was old when Dickson 

 was Consul, and that 's a long time ago. 



A Good Idea. — A correspondent writes : — What 

 do you think of the suggestion of a halfpenny 

 or penny subscription by total abstainers at home for 

 the best and cheapest working man's coffee roaster ? 

 It would total up to £1,000-3,000, and such a prize 

 would bring the brains of everyone (even stars of 

 engineers) to bear. It is the great desideratum, as 

 driuk is the greatest ciime of the age. Such a 

 prize would also allow of the best and cheapest 

 coffee pot as well. 



Coffee. — Statistics show that over 1,500,000 oper- 

 atives are employed in the manufacture of cotton 

 goods in the principal countries of the world. Of 

 these 480,000 are employed in Great Britain. France 

 follows, with 210, OUO, and the other countries, in 

 order of precedence, are the United States, Russia 

 Germany and India. With regard, however, to the 

 annual value of cotton goods produced, the United 

 States comes second, with about half the value of 

 the production of Great Britain; and Germany and 

 Russia follow. — Rio News. 



A Miniature Garden. — La Nature gives thefollow- 

 ing instructions for raising a live bouquet as a pretty 

 ornament for a room : — Get a cheap sponge — the bigger 

 the better — and. having dipped it in warm water, 

 squeeze out half the water. Put into the holes seeds 

 of millet, barley, purslane, red clover, grasses, &c., 

 and in gener.d any seeds germinating easily, and that 

 will give a considerable variety of colours. Plice the 

 sponge thus prepared on a vase, or hang it in a window 

 facing the sun. Sprinkle it with water every morning 

 during a week. The sponge will soon be covered with 

 vegetation. — Qiemist and Druggist. 



Dried Turtle Flesh and Beche-de-mer are thus 

 noticed in an article on Colonial Fishersiea in the 

 Colonies <£• India : — 



A "turtle pen" in the West Indies is by no means 

 a bad investment, and the wonder is that, with the 

 demand for these reptiles which exists, the colonifts 

 do not do more in this direction. The d'-yinc of 

 turtle flesh — after the manner of the "jerked beef" 

 or sun-aud-wind dried buffalo of the American prairie 

 — is an industry which the tastes of London aldermen 

 have, perhaps- unwittingly, created. A still more 

 curious industry is that of catching and drying the 

 celebrated trepang or h(rhe-de-mer, of the South Seas 

 and the E.asl. In the Malay Peninsula and Archi- 

 pelago, in Fiji, in Queensland, all over the Southern 

 Pacific, abounds a species of sea-slug, scientifically 

 known as hoMhuria, a somewhat hairy, slimy, black 

 or brown creature, an inch or two wide bv live or .«ix 

 inches long, which the natives catch, dry in the sun 

 and pick off to China at great profit. As Freucli froj^s 

 have made their v av into the London market, vve may 

 one day see the hi'rhe-de-mer imported and consumed 

 here — and connoisseuis say that Londoners display 

 very bad taste in not having introduced this luxury. 



