were received. They were visited, not 

 so much on account of the drink that 

 was dispensed there, but rather for the 

 purpose of discussing political situa- 

 tions; they constituted the favorite 

 meeting-places for anarchists, revolu- 

 tionaries, and high-class criminals. At 

 times it even became necessary to 

 close them entirely in order to check 

 or suppress political intrigues or plot- 

 tings against the government. At the 

 present time the saloons take the place 

 of coffee houses in most countries, and 

 many of them are still the hotbeds of 

 anarchy and crime. In Turkey, where 

 alcoholic drinks are prohibited, coffee 

 houses have full swing. 



The Dutch again seemed to have 

 been the first to attempt the cultiva- 

 tion of the coffee plant. In 1650 they 

 succeeded in transplanting a few trees 

 from Mecca to Batavia. From 1680 to 

 1690 the island already had large plan- 

 tations; others were soon started in 

 Ceylon, Surinam, and the Sunda is- 

 lands. About 1713 Captain Desclieux 

 carried some plants to the French 

 possessions of the West Indies (Mar- 

 tinique). It is reported that only a 

 single plant reached its destination 

 alive, which is the ancestor of the cof- 

 fee trees of the enormous plantations 

 of the West Indies and South America. 



The plant thrives best in a loamy 

 soil in an average annual temperature 

 of about 27degrees C.,v/ith considerable 

 moisture and shade. Most plantations 

 are at an elevation of 1,000 feet to 2,500 

 above the sea-level. In order to insure 

 larger yields and to make gathering 

 easier the trees of the South American 

 plantations are clipped so as to keep 

 their height at about 6 feet to 6.5 feet. 

 The yield begins with the third year 

 and continues increasingly up to the 

 twentieth year. The fruit matures at 

 all seasons, and is gathered about three 

 times each year. In Arabia, where the 

 trees are usually not clipped, and hence 

 comparatively large, the fruit is knocked 

 off by means of sticks. In the West 

 Indies and South America the red, not 

 fully matured fruit is picked by hand. 

 The outer hard shell (fruit coat, peri- 

 carp) is removed by pressure, rolling, 

 and shaking. The beans are now ready 

 for the market. 



All of the different varieties or kinds 

 of coffee found upon the market are 

 from two species of Coffea; namely, C, 

 Arabica and C. Liberica; the latter 

 yielding the Liberian coffee, which is 

 of excellent quality. 



There are a number of so-called cof- 

 fees which are used as substitutes for 

 true coffee, of which the following are 

 the more important. California coffee 

 is the somewhat coffee-like fruit of 

 Rhammis Californica. Crust coffee is a 

 drink resembling coffee in color, made 

 from roasted bread crusts steeped in 

 water. Mogdad or Negro coffee is the 

 roasted seeds of Cassia occidentalism 

 which are used as a substitute for cof- 

 fee, though they contain no caffein. 

 Swedish coffee is the seeds of Astraga- 

 lus Boetictis used as coffee, for which 

 purpose it is cultivated in parts of Ger- 

 many and Hungary. Wild coffee is a 

 name given to several plants native in 

 India, as Faramea odoratissima, Eugenia 

 disticha, and Casearia laetioides. Ken- 

 tucky coffee is a large leguminous tree 

 {Gymnocladus Catiadensis) of which the 

 seeds (coffee nut) are used as a sub- 

 stitute for coffee. 



The coffee beans are roasted before 

 they are in suitable condition for use. 

 At first the green beans were used. 

 According to one story, a shepherd 

 noticed that some of his sheep ate the 

 fruit of the coffee tree, and, as a result, 

 became very frisky. Presuming that 

 the coffee beans were the cause, he 

 also ate of the beans and noted an ex- 

 hilarating effect. The use of the 

 roasted beans was said to have origi- 

 nated in Holland. Roasting should be 

 done carefully in a closed vessel in 

 order to retain as much of the aroma 

 as possible. This process modifies the 

 beans very much; they change from 

 green or greenish to brown and dark 

 brown and become brittle; they lose 

 about 15 to 30 per cent, of their weight, 

 at the same time increasing in size 

 from 30 to 50 percent. The aroma is 

 almost wholly produced by the roast- 

 ing process, but if continued too long 

 or done at too high a temperature the 

 aroma is again lost. The temperature 

 should be uniform and the beans 

 should be stirred continually. It 

 should also be remembered that not 



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