were received. They were visited, not 
so much on account of the drink that 
was dispensed there, but rather for the 
purpose of discussing political situa- 
tions; they constituted the favorite 
meeting-places for anarchists, revolu- 
tionaries, and high-class criminals. At 
times it even became necessary to 
close them entirely in order to check 
or suppress political intrigues or plot- 
tings against the government. At the 
present time the saloons take the place 
of coffee houses in most countries, and 
many of them are still the hotbeds of 
anarchy and crime. In Turkey, where 
alcoholic drinks are prohibited, coffee 
houses have full swing. 
The Dutch again seemed to have 
been the first to attempt the cultiva- 
tion of the coffee plant. In 1650 they 
succeeded in transplanting a few trees 
from Mecca to Batavia. From 1680 to 
1690 the island already had large plan- 
tations; others were soon started in 
Ceylon, Surinam, and the Sunda is- 
lands. About 1713 Captain Desclieux 
carried some plants to the French 
possessions of the West Indies (Mar- 
tinique). It is reported that only a 
single plant reached its destination 
alive, which is the ancestor of the cof- 
fee trees of the enormous plantations 
of the West Indies and South America. 
The plant thrives best in a loamy 
soil in an average annual temperature 
of about 27 degrees C.,with considerable 
moisture and shade. Most plantations 
are at an elevation of 1,000 feet to 2,500 
above the sea-level. In order to insure 
larger yields and to make gathering 
easier the trees of the South American 
plantations are clipped so as to keep 
their height at about 6 feet to 6.5 feet. 
The yield begins with the third year 
and continues increasingly up to the 
twentieth year. The fruit matures at 
all seasons, and is gathered about three 
times each year. In Arabia, where the 
trees are usually not clipped, and hence 
comparatively large, the fruit is knocked 
off by means of sticks. In the West 
Indies and South America the red, not 
fully matured fruit is picked by hand. 
The outer hard shell (fruit coat, peri- 
carp) is removed by pressure, rolling, 
and shaking. The beans are now ready 
for the market. 
All of the different varieties or kinds 
of coffee found upon the market are 
from two species of Coffea; namely, C. 
Arabica and C. Liberica; the latter 
yielding the Liberian coffee, which is 
of excellent quality. 
There are a number of so-called cof- 
fees which are used as substitutes for 
true coffee, of which the following are 
the more important. California coffee 
is the somewhat coffee-like fruit of 
Rhamnus Californica. Crust coffee is a 
drink resembling coffee in color, made 
from roasted bread crusts steeped in 
water. Mogdad or Negro coffee is the 
roasted seeds of Cassia occidentalism 
which are used as a substitute for cof- 
fee, though they contain no caffein. 
Swedish coffee is the seeds of Astraga- 
lus Boeticus used as coffee, for which 
purpose it is cultivated in parts of Ger- 
many and Hungary. Wild coffee is a 
name given to several plants native in 
India, as Faramea odoratissima, Eugenia 
dislicha, and Casearia laetioides. Ken- 
tucky coffee is a large leguminous tree 
(Gymnocladus Canadensis) of which the 
seeds (coffee nut) are used as a sub- 
stitute for coffee. 
The coffee beans are roasted before 
they are in suitable condition for use. 
At first the green beans were used. 
According to one story, a shepherd 
noticed that some of his sheep ate the 
fruit of the coffee tree, and, as a result, 
became very frisky. Presuming that 
the coffee beans were the cause, he 
also ate of the beans and noted an ex- 
hilarating effect. The use of the 
roasted beans was said to have origi- 
nated in Holland. Roasting should be 
done carefully in a closed vessel in 
order to retain as much of the aroma 
as possible. This process modifies the 
beans very much; they change from 
green or greenish to brown and dark 
brown and become brittle; they lose 
about 15 to 30 per cent, of their weight, 
at the same time increasing in size 
from 30 to 50 percent. The aroma is 
almost wholly produced by the roast- 
ing process, but if continued too long 
or done at too high a temperature the 
aroma is again lost. The temperature 
should be uniform and the beans 
should be stirred continually. It 
should also be remembered that not 
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