1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
26 9 
and grow on mystery. I know what I am saying. 
Very likely the answer, “ God gave it to me,” 
will satisfy the inquirer of three years old; and 
that I regard as a truthful answer. Is not He the 
one Life-Giver ? Is He not creating now as much 
as ever ? Can any growth go on without His power ? 
But other explanations will be called for at a later 
day, and they must he bravely and tenderly given 
when called for. A child’s curiosity is usually 
healthy, and calls for wholesome gratification— 
provided it lives among good people. Curiosity 
grows morbid when it is baffled. Shall it have the 
truth from one who loves its soul, or such impure 
communications as any evil-disposed person may 
choose to give ? I dare not risk the latter. I dare 
not leave a darling child in such ignorance as will 
make it the comparatively easy prey of vice. 
One might imagine that a child’s thoughts would 
be running too much upon the subjects of which 
we now speak, if informed at all thereon ; but it is 
not so, according to my observation. Children 
are inquiring about everything, and in an active 
child one impression quickly follows another. 
We have no choice in the matter, whether our 
children shall grow up in ignorance of th right 
and wrong use of certain organs and passions, 
unless we are able to seclude them entirely from 
the world into which they have been sent. The 
choice left us is, who shall inform them, and how, 
and when? I should say, one or both of the 
parents, with religious tenderness, as speaking 
upon the most sacred themes, and just when the 
natural opportunity is given, at each time when the 
confiding child comes to its best friend, with a 
question which springs naturally from a young and 
innocent heart. It may all be told thus, during the 
growing years, little by little, as the child’s develop¬ 
ment suggests new needs, told as something that 
is never to be spoken of with vulgarity, but as 
serious truth between parent and child, or as 
scientific facts not suitable for random discussion. 
We must do what we can to save our children 
from vicious associates, but most of us will suffer 
many a heart-ache, because of the evil influences 
around our children. Danger sometimes lurks 
where we least suspect. Obscene books circulate 
among the good and respectable children of a school 
taught by some excellent teacher, or vicious prac¬ 
tices are secretly taught by “ well-behaved” little 
cousins. But if we can keep the confidence of our 
little ones, so that they cannot enjoy keeping any 
secret “ from mother,” but will come spontaneous¬ 
ly to us with every new thing that interests them, 
we may be able to save them from any serious 
moral poison. This seems to me our safest course 
to save our children, to be ourselves their most 
intimate friends, talking confidentially with them 
upon such subjects as interest them, so that they 
will not be driven elsewhere to get relief for their 
itching curiosity, or their over-burdened minds, and 
receive impressions that are difficult to eradicate. 
The Emancipation Suit. 
I referred to this suit some time ago, but lately 
I have had a chance to examine and try a summer 
suit made by the Boston Dress Committee, after 
this pattern, which they recommended as superior 
to all other patterns. It is certainly better than 
anything else 1 have seen. The waist is easy in its 
perfect fit, and by 
extending below 
the waist line, 
gives room for 
three rows of but¬ 
tons, the lower 
ones for the draw¬ 
ers, the next row 
above for “ dress 
drawers,” when 
worn, as they 
should be when 
going out in cold 
weather, (over¬ 
drawers made of 
flannel or water¬ 
proof, or of mate¬ 
rial like the dress), 
and the upper 
row of buttons 
for the skirt or 
skirts. By this ar¬ 
rangement one 
band does not 
over-lie another. 
The fullness 
across the breast 
is not made by setting in a simple straight piece of 
cloth, gathered at top and bottom, but is scientifi¬ 
cally arranged to fit, and at the same time support 
the bust. Thus it answers the purpose for which 
many women profess to wear corsets. Elastic 
stocking-supporters button to each side of the 
waist, and every article which a woman finds 
necessary to wear on any occasion, may in some 
way be supported by this carefully devised waist. 
SOTS & (D©MMMS a 
The Doctor’s Talks—Something 
about Coffee. 
I suppose that most boys and girls who read this, know 
what Coffee is, even if they do not drink it. They know 
that it comes from the store, and as some is called Java, 
and other kinds Rio and Maracaibo, they are probably 
quite sure that it comes from some far off countries. A 
friend from Brazil brought some neat little sketches of 
the way coffee is prepared for market, ana they being 
very interesting to me, I thought they would be so to 
you, so I had them engraved, 
and very pretty pictures they 
make. But before we talk about 
the preparing, let us see what 
coffee is. You perhaps hear the 
store-keeper speak of the coffee 
grains as “coffee beans,” and 
may think that it grows in a pod 
much like the common bean, but 
this would be a great mistake. 
As you can only see the coffee 
plant in some rare collection of 
greenhouse plants, here is an en¬ 
graving (figure 1), of a twig 
showing the leaves, flowers, and 
fruit. The coffee tree would 
grow 20 feet or more high, but 
in the plantations they do not al¬ 
low it to grow over 10 feet high, 
as it would be too much trouble 
to pick the coffee if too high. 
We have no common plants very 
closely related to coffee, it be¬ 
longs to a very large family of 
plants, of which there are many 
in tropical countries, and very 
few in ours. It is called the Madder Family, and the 
only very common plants ot that family in the north 
era states that I think of. is the Button-bush in the 
swamp, with its round head of white (lowers late in sum¬ 
mer. and the beautiful little Partridge-berry, or Twin- 
berry, that vou find in the woods, growing flat on the 
ground, witn its white hairy flowers, (oh so sweet and 
“ woodsy ”1) and bright red berries that it takes two 
flowers to make. These are far off cousins of the coffee, 
but do not look much like it, as you can see by the en¬ 
graving. Well, you must imagine these leaves in the en¬ 
graving to be six inches long, and all the rest enlarged 
in proportion, and you can then judge how the coffee 
plant looks. The flowers are white, and have a very 
pleasant, though not strong scent, and after these fall, 
then the fruit appears ; this, when just ripening, looks as 
much as can be like little cherries. You may be sure 
that a coffee tree is a very pretty sight, for I have seen 
several in greenhouses, and it must be much finer in the 
open air; the leaves are so bright-green, the flowers so 
white, and the fruit is bright-red when it begins to ripen, 
and turning to a rich purple color when “dead-ripe.” 
The fruit is only like a cherry outwardly, for if you 
break it open, you will find, instead of one round stone, 
two that are half round, with their flat sides towards 
each other. A berry cut across is shown in the engrav¬ 
ing. So the coffee, instead of growing like a bean, is the 
seed of a berry. The gathering and preparing for mar¬ 
ket is shown in the other pictures, hut before I describe 
them, let me answer a question that many of you no 
doubt are ready to ask—“ How came people to use coffee. 
Where did it first come from It is said that the coffee 
was first used in Abyssinia, (look at your Atlas), and it 
grows wild there, especially in the district of Kaffa, from 
the name of which we get the word coffee. Would you 
like to know who first brought it from Abyssinia ? I 
doubt if you will recollect his name, as it is no less than 
Djemal-eddin-Ebn-Abou-Alfagga. This man with a name 
brought coffee to Aden AAtlas again), and from there it 
gradually spread to other countries. It was at first used 
by the Mahommedans who wished to keep awake during 
some of their all-night ceremonies, and it was passed 
around^ in their mosques during their religious services. 
Coffee in early times was not in general use as it is now, 
but was sold only at coffee-houses, the first one in Lon¬ 
don was opened in 1052, and these houses in England 
kept up for a long time. Coffee was at first only culti¬ 
vated in Arabia, (Atlas), and other parts of the East, but 
the use of it so much increased, that it was after a while 
grown in almost all warm countries. It is now cultivat¬ 
ed in the East Indies, the West Indies, Brazil, Hayti, 
Venezuela, Central America, and elsewhere. Before the 
coffee appears in the cups upon the table, it has to go 
through many hands. In South America, where it rains 
often, the coffee is picked before it is so ripe as to be 
beaten from the tree by the rain storms, and this makes 
work for men and women, young and old; figure 2 shows 
the coffee plantation at picking time. You must recol¬ 
lect that now the coffee grains are in the little berry or 
fruit. The berries are taken to a large yard seen in fig. 
3, here the ground is very smooth and hard, and here 
they are spread in layers several inches thick, and the ber¬ 
ries first ferment or spoil, the workmen giving them the 
needed turning and stirring, until after some weeks the 
juicy berry has become dry. Then to get rid of the dried 
berry, and also a skin that is around the seeds, the mill 
shown in fig. 4 is used The large rollers you see in 
the picture go round and round in a channel, where the 
dried berries are put. The rollers are heavy enough 
to break up all the other parts but the seeds -for 
you know that raw coffee is pretty tough, and leave 
them whole. Then all the dirt and husks have to 
he separated, and this, on some plantations, is done 
by washing, and on others by a sort of fanning 
mill, very much like the one used by farmers to clean 
their gram. Then you will think the coffee is ready for 
market: not quite yet. A sens.ble farmer does not put 
his big and little apples, and the fair and the small and 
ill shapen ones into the same barrel, but he assorts them, 
and that is what the coffee grower does with his produce, 
which is assorted into several kinds. Small work you 
will think; so it is, but it gives employment to a great 
Fig. 4.— MILL FOR CLEANING TILE COFFEE. 
Fig. 5.— WOMEN ASSORTING COFFEE. 
