286 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



or they may be put through the hulling machine, 

 that removes the horny covering. This is the 

 "peeling" process. The winnowing blows away 

 the broken hulls and the silver skins that are 

 rubbed off, leaving the coffee bean as it comes to 

 us in the unroasted state. 



The dry process takes the berries from the pick- 

 ers' baskets, spreads them to dry on stone floors, 

 where they are raked over to make sure all are dry 

 before they are stored away. When needed, they 

 are freed by pounding from the coat of dried flesh 

 and parchment which are like a single layer. A 

 hulling machine does the work quickly, and is 

 generally taking the place of the simple mortars. 



The final preparation of coffee berries for mar- 

 ket is the sifting out of broken grains, and grading 

 into different sizes. This is done by the use of 

 sieves of different sized mesh. 



Before using, the berries are roasted till they 

 turn dark brown, then ground or pulverized. The 

 hot water extracts the caffeine and a volatile oil 

 in which resides the flavor of coffee. The stimu- 

 lating and refeshing effect of the caffeine is 

 harmful to some people, and probably to all who 

 drink much of this beverage. We must not for- 

 get that coffee is a much-abused article of com- 

 merce. It is subject to gross adulteration, and 



