742 C O F 
rated at 60,000 pounds weight; in 177; it was 4.40,000 
pounds. The abbe Raynal fays, that 12,550,000 pounds 
weight is annually exported from Arabia Felix. Dr. 
Patrick Browne, who redded many years in Jamaica, in¬ 
forms us, that the coffee-tree thrives beft in a rich foil, 
and cool (haded dtuation, where it produces fo great a 
quantity of fruit, that the branches can hardly fuftain 
the weight, and even the very trunk yields to the load. 
This fruit is large and fucculent, and the berries lax and 
clammy; they are gathered when only half ripe; and, 
inftqad of being (tripped of their pulp, and the feeds being 
carried down to the low lands to be dried, they are left 
(baking in their clammy juices, to dry (lowly in a damp 
air. This alone will fufficiently account for the fuppofed 
inferiority of the Jamaica coffee to the Arabian, which 
grows in a Candy, dry, hot, foil, where the berries have 
but little pulp, and are foon dried, fpread upon mats, and 
expofed to the fun. Dr. Browne however is of opinion, 
that the Weft-India iflands might furnifh coffee equal in 
quality to the Turkey, if the following remarks were at¬ 
tended to : 1. New coffee will never parch or mix well, 
from the natural clamminefs of the juices. 2. The fmalier 
the grain, and the let's pulp the berry has, the better the 
coffee, and the fooner it will parch, mix, and acquire a 
flavour. 3. The drier the foil, and the warmer the fitua- 
tion, the better the coffee it produces will be. 4. The 
larger and more fucculent the grain, the vvorfe it will be. 
5. The worff coffee produced in America will, in a courfe 
of years, not exceeding ten or fourteen, be as good as the 
belt we now have from Turkey; due care being taken to 
keep it in a dry place, and to preferve it properly. 6. 
Small-grained coffee, or that which is produced in a dry 
toil and warm fituation, will in about three years be as 
good as that which is commonly ufed in the coffee-houfes 
at London. Thefe, the dobtor tells us, are fabls founded 
on repeated experiments. 
Mr. Miller advifes thofe who cultivate the coffee-tree 
in the Weft Indies, firft, to make choice of a foil rather 
dry than moift; fecondly, to permit the berries to remain 
upon the trees, till the fki'n fhrivels and turns black ; 
thirdly, to gather them, or rather (hake them from the 
trees when they are perfectly dry, fpreading them upon 
cloths or mats in the fun to dry, as they do in Arabia 
Felix, carrying them every evening under cover; and 
when they are perfectly dry, deprived of their hufks and 
winnowed, to pack them up carefully in bags, and, when 
they are (hipped, not to fend them with rum or other goods 
from which they may imbibe any difagreeable flavour. 
Dr. Browne recommends fuch as pofi'efs large coffee- 
walks to have a convenient platform to dry the feeds on ; 
and he thinks it would be worth while to try whether 
iweating would dettroy the clamminefs of the large ber¬ 
ries. They lhould however be pulped and dried as foon 
as poflible, then hulked and cleared from all the outward 
coverings. This is generally done in Jamaica by pound¬ 
ing the dried berries lightly in a large wooden mortar; 
they are then winnowed, cleared, expofed afrefli to the 
lun for Come days, and then calked for the market. If 
it be not well dried, it is apt to heat on-board (hips, and 
then it lofes all its flavour. Long, in his Hiftory of Ja¬ 
maica, (1774,) obferves, that the berries ought never to 
be gathered till the pulp is exhaled, and the coat buffered 
to becjome thoroughly dry and fhrivelled, fo that they 
appear ready to drop off, and actually fall upon a (light 
touch. In confirmation of this, he affirms, that he lias 
experienced the beft-fiavoured coffee to have been col¬ 
lected from under the trees, where it had recently fallen, 
quite dry, black, and fhrivelled. He adds, that the trees 
fliould be planted at diftances proportioned to their 
growth, which in the low lands is five feet, in the moun¬ 
tains ten feet, or mor e ; and that the produce of a good 
tree is from one pound and a half to two pounds weight. 
He thinks that the mountain coffee might be improved 
by fending the berries to the low lands, where the heat 
is greater, and the air more dry 5 and by having a dry- 
F E A. 
ing-houfe under a roof, with one or more platforms, ad¬ 
mitting a free current of air, and excluding the rain and 
funfhine. He informs us that the hulk is no longer beat 
off in mortars, but by rollers turned by mules ; that 
wooden ones are preferable to (tone or iron ; and that the 
moft approved machine, invented by Mr. Latham, will 
clean one hundred hogfheads in a day. 
Dr.Fothergill fuggefts very leufonably, that the removal 
of the coffee-tree from the dry fterile Candy foil of Arabia, 
into the rich deep ftaple of Batavia, where the quantity of 
wet that falls in the rainy feafon is exceffive; its removal 
thence into Holland and Fiance, and its tranfportation af¬ 
terwards to a climate much more abounding with moiilure 
than that of which it was a native, may fo far have al¬ 
tered the quality of the fruit, as that it may not be ealily 
brought back to its original excellence. This however 
he thinks may be done, by making the plantations in 
foils as fimilar to its natural one as poflible. Fie alfo 
hints, that the fruit of young trees is in general more in- 
fipid, or has a lefs refined tafte, than at a more advanced 
age: that probably this may be the cafe in the coffee- 
tree j and he affirms that in old trees the fruit is fmalier. 
The French, both in the Eaft and Weft Indies, cultivate 
coffee with great attention, and accordingly theirs is 
much (uperior to ours, and is even thought by fome to 
be equal to the heft Turkey. They are ailb more careful 
in (hipping it home, not mixing it, as we do, with car¬ 
goes of rum and coarfe fugars, which communicate a 
tafte fcarcely to be driven off by fire. But it ought to be 
obferved, that whilft the induftry and genius of the French 
coffee-planters have been cherillied, ours have been re- 
ftridfted by a duty, which leffens the confumption. Dr. 
Fothergiil alfo thinks it probable that our plantation- 
coffee is ufed too foon ; and that one part of the excel¬ 
lence of the Mocha coffee may arife from the interven¬ 
tion of two and three years between its growth and 
confumption. Jn confirmation of this, the dobfor found 
that fome raw coffee, which was fent him from .the Weft 
Indies, and was fo ili-tafted as to be unfit for ufe, being 
laid in a very dry clol’et, was tried again the year after, 
and found to be greatly amended. He therefore recom¬ 
mends the importing it without other goods ; and the 
keeping it in dry airy places, till fuch a quantity is got 
together as may be fufficient to load a veffel. This fcheme, 
fays Mr. Miller, of keeping the American coffee berries 
feveial years, is contrary to all the experience 1 have had, 
and the information I can obtain from thofe who have 
feen the whole management of coffee in Arabia. Two 
gentlemen who had lived there fome years affured me, 
that the berries, when firft gathered, were much better 
than thofe which are kept any time. And a curious gen¬ 
tleman, who refided in Barbadoes two years, alio told 
me, that he never drank better coffee in any part of the 
world, than what he made from the frefh berries which 
he gathered himfelf, and roafted as he had occafion for 
them. This account is confirmed by trials with berries 
produced in our Englifh ftoves, which make a better fla¬ 
voured liquor than the beft Arabian coffee-berries that 
can be procured in England. The difficulties attending 
the keeping coffee any length of time to the planter are 
alfo apparent. His profit is not fufficient to enable him 
to keep it fo long as is propofed; and a tree in a rich 
foil producing almoft twice as much as one in a light one, 
whereas the difference in price in the European markets 
between fmall well-prepared coffee and that which is of 
the word kind, is only from fifteen to twenty per cent, 
the planters find their account in making their ccffee- 
walks in the richeft foil, where all'o the trees laft a much 
longer time; The dampnefs of the climate in the iliands 
is fuch, that it is very difficult to dry the berries well; 
and the negroes being lazy, ignorant, and frequently ill - 
difpofed, will not attend properly to the gathering of 
them perfedlly ripe: belides, the feafon for this being 
near the winter, the rains, which are then very frequent, 
often make the berries fall before they are perfe&ly ripe. 
