grew, and our author says, “It is curious to 
contrast this immediate and enthusiastic 
adoption of coffee drinking in England with its 
rather slow beginning in France—a country 
which has since become as devoted to coffee 
as England has become indifferent to it.” It 
is needless to follow the history of coffee 
drinking further, as it has become a house¬ 
hold necessity wherever the comforts of a 
home are loved and appreciated. 
CULTIVATION. 
As a general rule the best /.one of latitude 
for coffee is 25 ° or 30 ° on each side of the 
equator; and it thrives to an altitude of from 
3,000 to 4,500 feet. The deeper and richer the 
soil is the better. The plants are usually set 
at intervals of eight or ten feet. They begin 
bearing at the age of three or four years, 
their product annually increasing, and they 
are in full bearing at six years. Taking one 
year with another, a tree in full bearing pro¬ 
duces from two to three pounds per annum. 
Careful pinning is required to develop and 
maintain the productive capacity of the 
trees. Left to themselves, they grow to a 
considerable bight; but when about eight feet 
high the tops are cut off, which causes them to 
spread and afterwards they are -kept pruned 
are allowed to soak for 12 hours, a slight fer¬ 
mentation setting in decomposing the sticky- 
fluid or mucilage which adheres to the parch¬ 
ment skin. The berries are then washed 
clean and spread on large drying grounds, 
called barbecues, to dry (See Fig. 29.) 
When this is accomplished the coffee is sent 
“ in parchment,”—that is to say, in the dry, 
tough skin euveloping the bean—to the ship¬ 
ping ports where the subsequent operations of 
“peeling,” “garbling,” “ sizing.” and packing 
for export are completed. 
In the hands of the merchant the coffee- 
bean assumes a coat of many colors and is 
generally known by the name of the country 
from which it comes. It is sold in its native 
or raw state, mixed, roasted, glazed, ground 
and compounded or adulterated. Many val¬ 
uable hii.ts are given the merchant in buying 
and handling this important item of his stock, 
and the layman may learn a good deal that 
will help him in his selection of purchases. 
To accomplish this he may learn the exact 
appearance of his favorite variety in its pure 
state, also how to detect the presence of for¬ 
eign berries or adulterants, and he may also 
learn, what is of far more practical value to 
him, what varieties and what condition of 
preparation are best adapted to his surroi tnd- 
When individual skill is to be relied upon, 
“ when parties attempt to roast their own 
coffee, their object should be to produce a 
rich chestnut, brown; for making “black” or 
French coffee the bean should be roasted 
higher than usual, but the first-mentioned 
cot .r will best suit the ma jority of palates.” 
To accommodate the trade roasted coffee is 
now put up in pound packages by large 
dealers who possess a thorough knowledge of 
the characteristics of coffee produced in the 
various countries and the flavors which har¬ 
monize in blending. It is tightly sealed in 
wrappers while fresh from the roaster, which 
effectually preserves the aroma, while in some 
instances a preservative glass is added with 
the same object in view.” Upon the subject 
of grinding Mr. Thurber thinks “ Every fam¬ 
ily should own a small coffee-mill and grind 
their own coffee, grinding it just as required 
for each meal, and the less time that elapses 
after grinding and Until the coffee is ia the 
pot the betttr.” Coffee should be ground 
neither too coarse nor too fine, but to about 
the size of pin heads to accomplish the best 
results. 
MAKING COFFEE. 
We now come to the most interesting 
branch of this subject with the mass of the 
Rural readers, and that is the particular 
methods of making the most celebrated kinds 
of coffee. Among those described we will 
■ confine ourselves to the “Turkish,” “French,” 
“Vienna,” and the use of the “ideal” coffee 
pot. 
Mr. Thurber writes only of what he has 
personally experienced. To make Turkish 
coffee, he says: “In the numerous Moslem 
coffee houses of Constantinople, when a per¬ 
son calls for a cup of coffee, it is specially 
made for him. Every coffee-house has a 
number of long-handled, little brass pots. 
They are smaller at the top than at the bot¬ 
tom and are fitted with a little grooved spout, 
but have no cover. When a cup of coffee is 
wanted the requisite amount of finely-pow¬ 
dered coffee is measured into one of these 
little coffee-pots which is filled with water and 
set upon live coals until it boils. The liquor 
is then poured, without effort at settling, 
grounds and all, into a tiny cup. It is thick, 
muddy and the lower half of the cup is filled 
principally with grounds. It is drunk with¬ 
out milk and its excellence is attributed to 
its freshness and care in roasting. 
French coffee is made as follows; For one 
cup grind two tablespoonfuls of coffee and 
pack it solid in the coffee-pot (the regular 
French filtering pattern), then pour boiling 
water, passing it twice or thrice through the 
coffee pot. A favorite plan with the French 
is to udd half a teaspoonful of chicory to the 
above recipe when they propose to drink 
milk with their coffee. •• 
To make Vienna coffee the following recipe 
isjgiven; to make six quarts, one pound six 
ounces of coffee are used. Within a very 
heavy cylinder or urn that is securely pinned 
to the table there is fitted a coarse sieve, a 
piece of card surrounding the sieve to make 
it fit tightly. Over the sieve there is placed 
a piece of Canton flannel fastened down by 
means of an iron ring ibat fits into the rim 
which holds the sieve. Attached to the sieve 
is an iron fr une with a hook at the top. The 
sieve is pressed to the bottom of the cyliader, 
the coffee is placed upon the flannel and boil¬ 
ing hot water is poured upon it. Tins recep¬ 
tacle is then closed and covered an.I allowed 
to stand ten minutes. A screw fitted into an 
iron frame is then hooked on to the frame 
holding the sieve, which is then forced toward 
the mouth of the urn, the pressure forcing the 
infusion through the Canton flannel. The cof¬ 
fee is then ready to be served with hot milk 
and whipped cream. 
Here is Mr. Thurber’s individual recipe: 
Grind moderately fine a large cup or small 
bowl of coffee; break into it one egg with the 
shell; mix well, adding enough cold water to 
thoroughly wet the grounds; upon this pour 
one pint of boiling water; let it boil slowly 
for 10 or 15 minutes according to the variety 
of coffee used, and the fineness to which it is 
ground Let it stand three minutes to settle; 
then pour through a fine wire sieve into a 
warm coffee pot. This will make enough for 
four persons. At table put the sugar into the 
cup. then fill half full of boiling milk, add 
your coffee and you have a delicious beverage 
that will be a revelation to many poor mor¬ 
tals who have an indistinct remembrance of, 
and an intense longing for an ideal cup of 
coffee. 
conomij 
CONDUCTED BY EMfLY MAPLE. 
COFFEE FROM PLANTATION TO CUP* 
L. S. HARDIN, 
It has been said that flowers and good, 
light bread are evidences of the highest state 
of civilization. This statement we here find 
challenged by Mr. Thurber, with a still high¬ 
er type—the ideal cup of coffee. It may, 
perhaps, be a venial sin in lovely woman to 
occasionally break a man’s heart, but it is a 
grievous fault to destroy his digestive organs. 
It is, therefore, plainly her duty, along with 
all other matters ol’ cuisine, to make a thorough 
study of this most important article of diet ui 
all civilized countries of the earth. Coffee is 
one of the berries that man takes kindly to 
under ail conditions of existence, if he be but 
civilized enough to become acquainted with 
its genial and invigorating properties. To 
make a line cup of coffee the artist must look 
upon it as a master’s work and an accom¬ 
plishment belonging to one of the flue arts. 
With this view our author has taken the sub¬ 
ject up tenderly and lovingly and with the 
full determination of mastering every branch 
of its Intricate career, from the time the soil 
is first broken with the rude and primitive 
agricultural implements of the indolent trop¬ 
ics, through the various forms of ripening, 
gathering, bulling, pulping, shipping, roast¬ 
ing, marketing and making—placing it finally 
on the table in a hot urn with a hot cup to re¬ 
ceive it and possessed ol an Arabic odor that 
“ascendeth me to the brain and formeth 
beautiful and delectable thoughts.” 
It may to most housewives seem preposter¬ 
ous that it should be so difficult to make a 
good cup of coffee, but here is a man who has 
traveled round the world in quest of a good 
cup of coffee and returns to dedicate his 
book “ To the man at Poughkeepsie, one of 
the chosen few who know how to make a good 
cup of coffee.” He quaintly remarks, “ 1 do 
not know his name, but year in and ear out 
he gives the public an ideal cup of coffee, and, 
on the principle of ‘ act well your part, there 
all the honor lies ’ he is entitled to the public’s 
best thanks.” 
HISTORY OF COFFEE. 
According to our author the coffee plant is 
indigenous to almost the whole tropical belt 
of the globe. “ The plant seems to bear 
greater climatic extremes than most members 
of the vegetable kingdom and thrives in local¬ 
ities differing as much as 20 to 30 degrees in 
average temperature.” The first we hear of 
it through the regular medium of history is 
in the laud of Abyssinia and Ethiopia, where 
it seems to have been uted as a beverage from 
time immemorial. Many amusing stories are 
told of its manner of introduction first into 
Arabia, where the natives took kindly to it 
and the “ Mobomniedan pilgrims who flocked 
annually to Mecca, were initiated into this 
new fragment of the Faith and carried buck 
coffee-beans m their saddle-bags to all parts 
of the globe professing the faith of Islam. ’•» 
Like a mighty flood this pleasant liquid over¬ 
ran Egypt and in vailed Constantinople, but it 
required two centuries to conquer the preju¬ 
dices of Christian nations and receive its first 
approval by the citizens of Marseilles. The 
polite Parisians refused the tender of this 
black fluid until it was made fashionable by 
Soliman Aga, chief of the mission of an em¬ 
bassy from the Grand Seigneur, Mahomet IV 
to Louis XIV, in 1009. As an evidence that 
the introduction of uew food products is often 
more a matter of fashion than of judgment, we 
give the following description of the triumphal 
entry of the beverage into the French capital. 
“ If a Frenchman, in a similar case, to please 
the ladies, had presented to them this black 
and bitter liquor, he would have been rendered 
forever ridiculous. But the heverugu was 
served by a Turk—a gallant Turk—and this 
was sufficient to give it Inestimable value. 
Besides, before the palate could judge, the 
eyes were seduced by the display of elegance 
and neatness which accompanied it; by those 
brilliant porcelain cups into w hich it was 
poured; by napkins with gold fringe on 
which it was served to the ladies. Add to 
this the furniture, the dresses uud the for¬ 
eign customs, the strangeness of addressing 
the host through the interpreter, being seated 
on the erouud on (.ties, v.e., and you will 
allow tivit v. as more than enough to turn the 
heads of his visitors." 
About this time the coffee-houses of Bug- 
land became general resorts for agitating jiol- 
iticians and the fostering care of the govern¬ 
ment conceived it to be proper to have such 
hot-beds of sedition suppressed, and to this 
end various acts of Parliament were passed 
and enforced with more or less vigor. But 
with all its ups and downs the love of coffee 
* ofi'ee from plantation to Cup. A brief history of 
coffee production and consumption, by Frauds B. 
Thurber. American Grocer Fubllshlnu Association. 
COFFEE BRANCH AND BERRIES. 
G. Fully developed berry. 
D. Beans in berry. 
E. Bean in its two inner coverings, 
F. Bean ready for market. 
A. Blossom. 
B. Embryo seed vessel 
down to about eight feet. Some varieties are 
far more plastic under the hands of the pruner 
than others, as, notably, the Arabian, and 
this, it is thought, because there is a period 
longer or shorter between the blossom and the 
crop, in which old wood can be eliminated, 
and it is thought that the continuous bearing 
all the year round of the other varieties ren¬ 
ders this practice liighly objectionable. One 
of the objects of forcing the Arabian coffee 
tree into an artificial form is to get the whole 
growth under hand, so as to facilitate and 
cheapen the gathering of the crop. The aver¬ 
age diameter of the trunk in full bearing 
trees is about the size of a man's wrist. They 
bear a profusion of dark green, glossy leaves 
and the fruit or berry forms on the woody 
stems, usually at the buse of these leaves. (See 
Fig, 23.) The fruit when it has become 
ripe is red in color and resembles a large cran¬ 
berry or medium sized cherry, and consists of 
five different parts covering the two beans 
which lie within face to face 
Of the different processes necessary to pre¬ 
pare the bean for market, that of removing 
the outer rind, or of “ pulping,” as it is called, 
is the only ouo performed on the plantation. 
The berries puss from the pulper (See Fig, 30.) 
into a cistern filled with water. There they 
ings. For instance, if not near the market 
and not skilled in the art of roasting and 
grinding, he may purchase the raw berry; 
but if dependent upon a green hand to do the 
roasting and near enough to market to pro¬ 
cure fr. sh coffee every week or two, he 
should buy his coffee already roasted, for 
“the most important of all the conditions 
necessary to be observed in the production of 
a cup of good coffee is the process of roast) ng 
the bean. The finest quality of coffee unskill- 
fullv roasted will give a less satisfactory' re¬ 
sult in the cup than a poor quality roasted in 
the best manner.” Even among professional 
roasters there are bunglers, even though they 
have spent their lives in the occupation. In 
large cities coffee roasting is made a regular 
1 >usine8s by firms that employ many hands 
and vast capital in machinery and apparatus. 
(See Fig. 31) “ The revolution which has 
taken place in the coffee trade of the United 
States during the last 20 years is a striking 
confirmation of the principle that work can 
be done in the best and cheapest manuer on a 
large scale where machinery is employed that 
is controlled by the best available skill. It 
may safely be said that 20 years ago there 
was not one pound of roasted coffee sold in 
this country where now there are twenty.” 
The best i-’ffee of commerce is the Mocha, 
grown in the Province of Yemen, Arabia, 
w it,h small seeds of a dark red color. Next 
comes the Java, with larger seeds of a paler 
yellow: while those of the West Indies and 
Brazil have a bluish or greenish gray tint. 
Much of the Mocha coffee sold, however, is 
sent from India to Mocha, where it is re- 
snipped as the native product, and not a lit tle 
“genuine” Mocha comes from Africa and 
Brazil. Ai-re than half the coffee consumed 
in the world comes from the latter country, 
\\ here it is the great commercial staple. 
