COFFEE. 183 



degrees it spread, and at the present day the consumption of the article 

 in Europe exceeds 660,000,000 of pounds annually. The greater 

 portion of coffee consumed in Europe is the produce of America, and 

 yet it is not more than a century since it was first grown in the New 

 W(.rld. 



The oofFee-plant thrives between the tropics in situations where the 

 mean and nearly constant temperature is between 22° and 26° C, 

 (71.5° and 80° F.) 



Coffee is rarely sown in a nursery : the seeds are made to germinate 

 still surrounded by their natural pulp, and wrapped up in leaves of the 

 banana. The young plants, after seven or eight days of germina- 

 tion, are put into the ground. In the valley d'Aragua an acre of 

 ground of good quality is generally laid out with about 1040 plants. 

 The coffee-plant flourishes in the course of the second year ; when 

 left to grow unimpeded it will attain a height of from 23 to 26 feet, 

 but it is seldom allowed to grow so high, its upward progress being 

 checked by pruning ; the planters of Venezuela generally keep it at 

 a height of from five to six feet. The shrub receives the care of 

 the planter during the first two years ; the ground must be kept free 

 from vk^eeds, and the growth of parasites must above all be prevented. 

 To thrive, the coffee-plant requires frequent rains up to the time of 

 flowering. The fruit bears a strong resemblance to a small cherry, 

 and is ripe when it becomes of a red color, and the pulp is soft and 

 very sweet. As the berries never ripen simultaneously, the coffee 

 harvest takes place at different times, each requiring at least three 

 visits made at intervals of from five to six days. A negro will 

 gather from ten to twelve gallons of fruit in the course of a day. 



Two beans are found in the interior of each berry ; in order to 

 free these from the pulp which surrounds them, they are passed 

 hrough a kind of mill, and the coffee is steeped in water for twenty- 

 four hours in order to free it from the mucilaginous matter which 

 adheres to it; it is then dried by being spread out upon a floor under 

 a shed. In the coffee plantations of Venezuela which I visited, I 

 saw them proceed in another way. The berries were exposed to 

 the sun upon a piece of ground somewhat inclined, and spread out 

 to about three inches in thickness ; the pulp soon enters into fer- 

 mentation, and a very distinct vinous odor is exhaled, and the juice 

 altered either flows away or dries up ; at the end of a fortnight or 

 three weeks the berries are all dry and shrivelled, and they then 

 undergo two triturations, one to obtain the seeds or beans, the 

 other to detach a thin pellicle which surrounds them. Three bush- 

 els of berries will yield from 85 to 90 lbs. of marketable coffee. 



During the destruction of the sugary matter contained in the pulp 

 of the berry, a considerable quantity of spirit is produced and dissi- 

 pated. M. Humboldt, struck with the readiness with which the 

 berry of the coffee-plant runs into fermentation, expresses his sur- 

 prise that no one ever thought of obtaining alcohol from it. In an 

 old work, however, I find the following passage : " The inhabitants 

 of Arabia take the skin which surrounds the coffee bean and prepare 

 it as we do raisins ; they form a drink with it for refreshment during 



