212 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[September i, 1882. 



Beasous, both flowers and berries — and those, too. ripe — 

 are often to be seen on the tree at the snme time ■, as 

 however the chief flowering occurs December to Fibru- 

 ary, the hemes are, as a 'rule, sufliciently ripe — if not 

 fully colom-ed before the gi-eat outhm-st of flowers and 

 can, as indeed they should at all times, be removed 

 before the opening of new flowers. 



The uncertainty of the blossom "setting" fruit 

 in the case of Cqfl'ea urahica is only too well known, 

 even in Ceylon, at what is regarded as suitable elev- 

 ation. It is stUl jjreater in the West Indies at a 

 necessarily very low level, hut at this same level ; the 

 Liberian is nniformly fruitful ; and hereby as noted from 

 the first, lies its chief usefulness and value. What is 

 now wanted is a hybrid tliat •will possess the character 

 of productiveness at low level combined with the superi- 

 or Bubstauce and flavour of the bean of Coft'ea arahira. 

 The attainment of such a variety would only result from 

 much patience and Bkill, l)ut it is not too much to 

 hope for. 



it is found that on trees more or less shaded the 

 bei-ries take much longer time to ripen, and are 

 much less highly coloured than on trees fuUy exposed, 

 on which indeed the ripening with high colom-ing ocem's 

 a month or six weeks earlier. 



The benies produced on yoimg vigorous trees 

 are often over an inch thi'ough lengthwise, but the 

 beans are not so much larger in proportion to those of 

 the C. arabica, nor than the beans borne in sinaltcr 

 berries either on the same or older trees — on which in- 

 deed the hemes are invariably of diminished size and 

 at the same time of gi-eater uniformity. I have not 

 found in any case that an increased size of the berry 

 is accompanied with an .appreciably larger beau. 



I observe that the fruit on the older trees is not 

 only smaller than on younger trees, but the pulp 

 is much thinner and generally of a more satisfactory 

 character to the cultivator ; it then agrees very nearly 

 as to size with the "cheiTy" of the Cqffea arabica, 

 and proves much more susceptible of drying in the 

 " cherry " state, in the manner I find it is dealt with 

 in Liberia. 



The outer or "pulp" part of the Liberian cofiee 

 beiTy is extremely tough and hard, and suggests some 

 ditficulty in extracting the beans the refrom. 



There is also an objectionable stickiness in the 

 mucilaginous covering of the parchment which greatly 

 interferes -nith rapid shelling from the fresh pulp. 



In the face of this and the fact that the entu'e 

 fririt can be readily dried into a crackling, it would 

 appear that the method of j)reparing the Liberian cofl'ee 

 for the market will be in conformity with this, and by 

 means of a modified hulling machine to get out the 

 bean from the crackling or dried "cheny." 



The berries ripening from November onwards is here 

 a cii'cmnstance in favour of this process, (as also 

 the gathering — in the face of an unsteady and ex- 

 pensive labour) for, as a rule, fine weather prevails. 

 A fm-thor and remarkable feature Ib favom- of this 

 process is the non-fermentable character of the fresh 

 fruit — its smface being dry — by which amassing for con- 

 venience in unsteady weather would be largely practicable. 

 As to the character of the crackling Coffee m 

 respect of hulling as compared T\ith that of the orilinary 

 Coffee, the difference is not in favouf of the Liberian. 

 Dealing with crackling cofiVe as suggested above and 

 which has been carefully observed, it is foimd that in 

 a poimd of Liberian coffee iu this form the weight of 

 the beans is 7i oz., while the weight of the refuse 

 crackling hull and parchment is 8J oz. 



In a poimd of crackling Creole coffee {Cojfea arab- 

 ica) the weight of beans is 11 oz., whUe the weight 

 of refuse cracklmg hull and parclnneut is only .5 oz. 

 The waste tissue in Liberian cofl'ee is therefore about 

 70 per cent more than iu Creole of Coffea. arabica. 

 The general character of the beans, more especially 



of those received direct from Liberia, as compared 

 with beans of Coffea arabica, and varieties, is coarse, 

 dull in colour, and uneven. The bean is of an ovate 

 shape, with a very wide fissm'e running diagonally across 

 its flat side. 



As to weight of bean a gi'eat deal of course depends 

 on the state of dryness, but at the degree it may 

 be assumed to be fau'ly marketable, 1,000 beans go 

 to the pound, while ordinary Coffea arabica beans go 

 1,300 or 1,400 to the pound, at the some time Liberian 

 coffee beans can be easily dried up to 1,200 to the pound. 

 In all published accounts which have come under 

 my notice, the Liberian coffee has been represented to 

 be of superior flavom' and of much gi'eater yield than 

 Coff'ea arabica — so much so that it had become mono- 

 polised by American dealers, but from the earliest notices, 

 nothing has been said, so far as I am aware, as to the 

 general character of the bean as obtaiued by cai'eful 

 scientiflc test. In the earlier notices, the tree and its 

 produce were alluded to in general terms only, and not 

 without exaggeration. 



Quite recently favourable accounts as to yield 

 have been received from Ceylon, but so far I do not 

 flnd auy particulars of the character of the bean produced 

 there, but the prices quoted for Liberian coffee sold in 

 Loudon would imply that it is regarded as superior. 



It would appear that in America it is esteemed 

 by dealers as a good coffee for mixing — i.e., giving body 

 to thin flavmu'ed kinds. 



The tests to which it has been subjected here 

 would indicate it to be a ' fair ' coffee, and as such I 

 received the testunony of the late Dr. Imray who paid 

 close attention to the subject of its cultivation in Dom- 

 inica. Beans received du-ect from Liberia did not how- 

 ever STipport this character of ' f ah ' and newly gathered 

 beans produced here were not much better, only they 

 were of a diflerent flavour — being iu fact quite gi'eeu 

 and possessing characters common to gi'cen vegetable 

 tissues — by no meaus agreeable. A sample from the 

 same gatherling 12 months old however produced very 

 different results, and justified the term 'fair' as to qirality. 

 The flavom' is vei'y distinctive, and specially remarkable 

 in its <liffiisive and penetrating character, and which 

 I imagine constitutes its superiority in the American 

 market as a "iiii.ring" coffee. 



Flavom' and consistence will of course vary with 

 cu'cumstance of soU, age of beau, as also of the tree 

 producing it. In the tests made here, however, I have 

 found nothing to constitute it a superior coffee to the 

 produce of Coffea arabica and varieties. Further, the 

 samples tested were distinctly deficient in the fine piquant 

 aromatic flavom' characteristic of Moka, and the fine 

 Tiinidad Creole coffee — which however is inferior to none 

 the world produces. 



Information beaiing on the flavom- of the Liberian 

 cofl'ee, as well as on the geographical distribution of 

 the L. coffee plant was volimtarily commuuicated to me 

 by an intelligent old African whose early life was passed 

 in the Mozambique — fiast Africa. He was engaged clean- 

 ing a sample of Liberian cofl'ee and proceeded to remark 

 in a pleasant tone to which he was evidently aroused 

 by having to deal with "home" material — "plenty 

 " of this coffee gi'ows in my country, but the people 

 " don't like it too much. Portuguese and French people 

 " come from the ship and take the benies, make the 

 " chUdei'n pick them and cairj them away, but, my 

 " country-people don't use them if they can get the 

 " other quality" (Coff'ea arabica), and then putting his 

 hand on a tray of nutmegs hard by, he rem<trked 

 "my eountiy got plenty of these too, but people 

 " don't bother to pick them up, because there are too 

 " mauy all about." Now as Nutmegs and Cloves are 

 known to be shi[>ped from the Mozambique quarter, 

 it is probable that the old man's information as to 

 Liberian cofl'ee is con-ect, and the species, (possibly 

 introduced) or one like it is to be found thqre also. 



