1861 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
53 
' ■ — - -- 
Almost universally it is raised from seed, very 
much ais a nurseryman does liis apple trees. 
When the plants are six inches high, they are 
removed from the seed bed, and set out nine 
inches apart, and kept clear of weeds for a year. 
Then they are taken up and planted in their 
permanent positions, varying from four to nine 
feet apart. When two years old, if very vigor¬ 
ous, they begin to bear; but a full crop is ob¬ 
tained the fourth year. A plantation should, if 
properly pruned and cultivated, continue in 
good bearing for 25 or 30 years, but in the ma¬ 
jority of cases which I saw, the trees were ready 
for the wood-pile when ten years old. 
In December and January, the crop is gath¬ 
ered. The wet season is then passed, and a uni¬ 
form dry season may be depended on. Women 
and children are mostly employed in the pick¬ 
ing, and a busy time it is. The berries are 
thrown into large vats of water, and well stirred 
with paddles, moved either by hand or machin¬ 
ery, until the grains are in part separated from 
their external coatings. The mass is then al¬ 
lowed to stand in the water for a day or two, un¬ 
til an incipient fermentation takes place, which 
decomposes the gluten, etc., and, it is claimed, 
improves the flavor of the Coffee. It is then 
taken from the vats and spread upon cement 
floors, which are a permanent and important 
part of the arrangements of a Coffee estate, 
sometimes covering an acre or more of ground. 
Here the Coffee is frequently stirred, and in the 
course of fifteen or twenty days, is sufficiently 
dry to be housed. In some cases, especially 
among foreign cultivators, I found kilns in use 
to facilitate the drying. The next process is to 
remove and separate the particles of hull, etc., 
which still adhere to the grain. This is accom¬ 
plished by a rubbing process. Various machines 
are in use for this purpose, more or less efficient 
according to the means or intelligence of the 
operators; but Yankee inventions have already 
been introduced, which reduce the .cost of clean¬ 
ing from cents to of a cent per pound. After 
this, the refuse and dust are removed by win¬ 
nowing, and it is ready for sale. When, how¬ 
ever, it reaches the warehouse of the merchant, 
it is picked over, grain by grain, and all the im¬ 
perfect ones are sorted out. 
TME MOTMKOm 
Charcoal in Starch—Chemistry. 
It may interest the unscientific reader to be 
informed that the pure white starch she uses 
contains a large amount of charcoal. We had 
occasion to analyze it, a few years since, that 
is, to seperate its atoms; and what, think you, 
we found in 9 ounces of pure dry, white starch ? 
Why, just 4 ounces of pure black charcoal, and 
5 ounces of pure water, and nothing else! This 
seems wonderful, but it has been proved a hun¬ 
dred times. Place a little Starch in a clean iron 
spoon, and heat it over burning coals, as hot as 
you can without having it take fire. You will 
see it gradually change to black charcoal, and 
i you could catch the invisible vapor that 
rises, in a bottle or bell glass, you would find 
that only water or steam had escaped. In its 
ordinary state, the charcoal (or carbon) exists 
in such a combination with the elements of 
water (oxygen and hydrogen), that the com¬ 
pound reflects white light to the eye ; but when 
you expel the elements of water, the charcoal 
reflects no light, or but little, and it then appears 
to its Uack form. This is only one of the thou¬ 
sand curious things that chemistry reveals, and 
perhaps this illustration may lead some to study 
this wonderful as well as useful science; for there 
is no science so really useful to all classes, no 
matter what their calling or station in life. 
[In a former number we recommended our 
readers to procure and study “ Youman’s House¬ 
hold Science” which treats largely of the chem¬ 
istry of household matters, and many have sent 
to us to procure the book for them. We shall 
gladly send it to all those who desire it. The 
cost is but $1 .25 sent post paid. We have no 
interest in the copyright, and only recommend 
the book because we think it will do much to 
promote health and comfort. This is confined 
mainly to Household science. There are other 
good elementary books on chemistry—a science 
which we believe should be one of the first 
studied by every child in school, and also by 
every adult not yet acquainted with it.] 
--—e-»i — . » - 
About the Sleep of Children. 
One of the first rhyming couplets learned by 
most of us, was: “ Early to bed, and early to rise, 
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” This 
sounds plausible, and if the whole couplet 
were followed, it would be all well enough; 
but the practice is : go to bed late and get up 
early. An abundance of sound sleep is very 
important to the physical and mental health of 
children. While under the age of six years, 11 
hours of sound sleep should be taken by them 
every night; from six to twelve years of age, 
10 hours are needed; and from twelve to the full 
growth of the body, not less than 9 hours of 
sleep are absolutely necessary. After that pe¬ 
riod, 8 hours may answer, though 9 are better. 
A sure recipe for securing restless sleep and 
the “ kicking off” of the bed covers, is to allow 
children, or grown up people even, to eat hearty 
suppers. A light diet of bread and milk, say a 
cup full—not a great bowl full—is all that a 
child needs, and all it should have after dinner. 
Give them this at 5 o’clock P. M., and accustom 
them to go to bed invariably at 6 to 6i o’clock, 
Summer and Winter, and they will sleep sound¬ 
ly during all the evening and through the night. 
After the age of three, it is better not to accus¬ 
tom children to sleep during the day. Then, by 
making it an invariable rule for them to go to 
bed at 6 or 6^ P. M., they will quickly drop to 
sleep. Were there no considerations of health, 
the convenience of having children “ out of the 
way ” during the evening, would be a sufficient 
inducement to this plan. We repeat that it is 
perfectly easy to accustom children to this,—if 
the rule be adhered to. We speak from success¬ 
ful experience, as well as from observation. 
Rocking, or carrying, or singing even an in¬ 
fant child to sleep, induces one of the worst hab¬ 
its you can teach it. Put an infant in a bed or 
a crib, and let it lie there until it cries itself to 
sleep, even if it does sob for an hour or two, and 
in a very few days it will go into a quiet slum¬ 
ber quite as quickly as if shaken in the arms, or 
in a cradle. The truth is, few mothers or nurses 
have the courage or patience to endure the cry¬ 
ing for the first few trials required, and so they 
go on, slaves for years. If a child wakens, do 
not take it up or make the slightest effort to 
soothe it, or you will soon inpulcate a bad and 
needless habit. Let it lie—if it cries, no matter 
how hard—nerve yourself against any interfer¬ 
ence, and it will soon cease to expect aid or 
caresses. If a bad habit has already been form¬ 
ed, it will require longer and more persevering 
efforts to break it up, but it can always be done. 
Try our recommendations, mothers, and you will 
find them valuable, and will save yourselves 
a world of care, and lengthen your days and 
promote the health of your little ones. 
--— m m am -■*-«.- 
How to Keep the Children Healthy. 
The mortality among children in our cities, as 
well as in the country, is sad to contemplate. Is 
there any necessity for this ? Are all these 
children sent into the world to be thus early 
cut down ? Are not nine out of ten of these 
early deaths the result of ignorance ? What pa¬ 
rents ever lost a child, except by accident, with¬ 
out thinking: “ If I had treated it differently, it 
would not have died” ? The loss of our own 
three first bom has led us to think much upon 
this topic, and three almost always healthy liv¬ 
ing ones are evidences that our studies on the 
subj ect have not been in vain. A few hints on 
the topic, from time to time, may not be without 
use to those parents who read the Agriculturist. 
Elsewhere, we have given some hints on the 
sleep of children. Next to securing plenty of 
sound sleep, or rather before it, we place the 
•proper preparration of food. The kind of food they 
eat is not of half so much consequence, as the 
manner of its preparation. Give a child a hard 
apple and let him swallow it in pieces from the 
size of a large pea upward. The result will be, 
that the lump will be partly worn off by the 
coats of the stomach, and partly dissolved by 
the gastric juice; but after a time, the remaining 
portion of the lumps will be forced down into 
the intestines and go through the whole length 
of 15 to 20 feet, producing at least griping and 
irritation all the way, if not diarrhea or dysen¬ 
tery. But first scrape or mash the apple to a 
fine pulp, and it may than be eaten with im¬ 
punity, and with benefit, if ripe or nearly so. 
Feed a child on boiled potatoes cut up, or on 
potatoes coarsely mashed and fried in fat, and 
you will be pretty sure to find more or less 
of lumps of potatoes remaining undigested. 
How can it be otherwise than that these 
lumps must have produced irritation in the in¬ 
testines ? But mash these same potatoes finely 
before feeding them, and then the fine material 
will be digested and afford nutriment instead of 
giving uneasiness and pain “under the apron.” 
The same holds true of most meats. Cut up 
fine—as fine as shot almost—they will be digest¬ 
ed, and produce nourishment; while if fed in 
coarse pieces, they will lie in the stomach, like 
a meat poultice on the outside, the cause of un¬ 
easiness if not of partial inflammation. Feed 
raisins and nuts to children, and unless very 
strong and vigorous, the chances are that they 
will induce immediate sickness or a weakened 
system, liable to be affected by the first change 
of heat and cold. Chop these same raisins or 
nuts finely, reducing them almost to powder, and 
they may be eaten in moderate quantity with 
impunity. These remarks apply to all kinds of 
food, and, in a measure, to grown people as 
well as to children. 
Many persons are over nice or anxious as to 
what their children eat, and often reduce them 
to skeletons, or unfit them for a vigorous re¬ 
sistance of colds and malaria diseases, by feed¬ 
ing them on toast, or rice, weak gruel, etc. 
Give them rather a fair supply of hearty food 
so finely reduced that it will he quickly digested in 
the stomach , and they will grow vigorous and be 
able to withstand the changes of climate, and 
the exposures to which they are ever liable. 
Mothers, consider these things, and see if they 
are not true and in accordaace with reason. 
