COFFEE. 
ANNA R. HENDERSON. 
COFFEE is a native of Abyssinia, 
being first used by the natives 
of the district called Kaffa, 
whence its name. It is still 
found wild in parts of Africa. 
It was introduced into Arabia in the 
fifteenth century, and is so well suited 
to that soil and climate that the Mocha 
coffee has never been excelled. It 
became so popular that in 1638 the 
Mohammedan priests issued an edict 
against it, as the faithful frequented 
thecoffeeshops more than the mosques. 
In 1638 the beverage was sold in Paris, 
but did not win favor for a few years 
until it was introduced to the aristoc- 
racy by Soliman Aga, the Ambassador 
of the Sublime Porte at the Court of 
Louis XIV. Coffee sipping became 
fashionable, and before the middle of 
the seventeenth century was the mode 
in all the capitals of Europe. 
Cromwell ordered the closing of the 
coffee shops of England, but its popu- 
larity did not wane. 
In 1699 coffee was planted in Batavia 
and Java. In 1720 three coffee shrubs 
were sent from the Jardin des Plantes in 
France to the Island of Martinique. 
The voyage was long, and water be- 
coming scarce two of the plants per- 
ished, but Captain Declieux shared his 
ration of water with the other plant, 
and it lived to become the ancestor of 
all the coffee groves in America. 
On the coat of arms of Brazil which 
adorns every flag of that country is a 
branch of coffee, a fit emblem, as Bra- 
zil produces three-fourths of the coffee 
of the world. It was first planted there 
in 1754, and the first cargo was shipped 
to the United States in 1809. 
It can be grown from seeds or from 
slips. Shrubs begin bearing the sec- 
ond or third year, and are profitable 
for fifteen years, some trees continue 
bearing for twenty- five years. 
They are planted six or eight feet 
apart, and not allowed to grow more 
than twelve feet high; and are not 
pruned, so that the limbs bend nearly 
to the ground. The long slender droop- 
ing branches bear dark green, glossy 
leaves, directly opposite to each other. 
Between these leaves bloom the flow- 
ers; clusters of five or six white star- 
shaped blossoms, each an inch in diam- 
eter. These jessamine-like flowers 
touch each other, forming a long snowy 
spray bordered with green. Nothing 
can exceed the beauty of a coffee 
grove in bloom, and its fragrance 
makes it a veritable Eden. 
It is beautiful again when the berries 
are ripe. They resemble a large cran- 
berry, each berry containing two grains, 
the flat sides together. The fruit is 
slightly sweet but not desirable. Three 
crops are gathered in one year. I have 
in memory a coffee plantation in the 
mountains of Brazil, where the pickers 
were African slaves. They made a 
picturesque sight, picking into white 
sacks swung in front of them, occasion- 
ally emptying the fruit into broad, flat 
baskets. Each man will pick more 
than thirty pounds a day, and at sunset 
they wind down the mountain paths 
with their broad baskets of red berries 
balanced on their heads. 
The ripe fruit is put through a mill 
which removes the pulp. The wet 
berries are then spread to dry in the 
sun on a floor of hardened earth, brick 
or slate. 
The coffee terrane in my memory 
was about eighty feet square, laid with 
smooth slate, and slightly sloping. It 
had around it a moulding of plaster 
with spaces of perforated zinc for the 
escape of water. Orange and fig trees 
dropped their fruit over its border and 
it was an ideal spot for a moonlight 
dance. The coffee house was near, 
and an approaching cloud was a signal 
to gather the coffee in. 
When dry the grains are put through 
a mill, or where primitive methods pre- 
vail, pounded in a mortar to remove a 
thin brittle shell which encloses each 
grain. The coffee is then put into 
sacks of five arrobas, or 160 pounds 
each and carted to the warehouses of 
the city. 
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