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from the fissure of the seeds. Here the seeds, properly so called, lie, and seem to consist of a sprout and of two original leaves.

Sometimes the cherry has only one seed or grain, which then is in the form of a small egg; but the chink, parchment, and membrane are preserved. This is peculiar to old decayed trees, or to the extremities of some small branches.

The business of preparation consists in taking the seed from its coverings, in drying it one way or other, and in cleaning it, so as to have every advantage at market.

It is generally known that the merchants have fixed a mark of preference upon coffee of a certain appearance. It is thus particularly required that it be perfectly dry, have a fine deep green colour, termed horngreen, a strong pleasing smell, and some brightness. Some remains of the silvercoloured membrane are also sought for in the fissure. Lastly, small coffee is preferred. Is this the best coffee for use? Such is not in reality the case. It is a matter of fact, that the oldest coffee, if well kept, is the most palatable. It is, however, dull, and has a colour between red and yellow. But the reason of the preference given to the coffee of the first description is, probably, that in this state it is better able to resist the great alteration which it suffers in the passage home. I remember to have seen, at a merchant's in the town of Nantes, upwards of a hundred samples of coffee, among which he pretended that many were of the first quality; though certainly, at the market of Cape Francois or Port-au-Prince, the very best of them would not have been allowed rank in the third.

The coffee of the first quality always bears a penny (sol) more in price than the second; and when coffee is sold at twenty sols per pound, this amounts to five per cent. Hence it becomes an object to cure it in the best

manner.

I shall take notice of the different modes of preparation. The last and most accurate is the most proper for attaining the finest market quality; because, as the desiccation is quick, it better disengages all fermentable matters; and it is a chemical rule generally known, that desiccation should be quick, and crystallisation slow. The reputation of the Borgne coffee belongs to this method of preparation, of which the first trials were early made in that district; for neither its land nor its climate are superior to others. The small size of the grain was only remarkable when the plantations were in the lower grounds; but this certainly affords no proof of a good soil. However, custom, that second queen of the world, keeps up that character, though the plantations on the high mountains bear at present as large coffee as anywhere else; and though in every other part of the island, those planters

who have adopted the method of Borgne make as fine coffee as the inhabitants of that district.

It was the original method of preparing, to dry the coffee, as they term it, in cherries; viz. as it is taken from the tree; and indeed this is still followed by great numbers, either from want of water, and misapplied economy in saving the expense of supplying it, or from the mere force of habit, and perhaps from the idea of dispensing with some labour of the negroes, and themselves with the expense of mills and basins. But the following explanations will evince their mistake.

It is obvious that the grain of coffee, being enclosed in its skin and pulp, the drying will be greatly more tedious, especially in rainy countries. In some few plantations the drying is performed upon the bare ground, which is still more intolerable; but even upon good platforms, as are now generally in use, it will remain much longer in its clammy moisture. It will ferment, and acquire a brown yellow hue; and sometimes even become mouldy. sides, both the greater bulk, and the greater slowness in drying, require a greater proportion of expensive platforms, and more trouble and care in management.

Be

However, for the sake of truth, I must mention two observations.

It is alleged that coffee dried in this manner is more heavy than when dried in parchment. I made the trial, under the circumstances most favourable to this opinion; and I really found that it weighed three per cent. more.

In the next place, an early crop, of about a thousand-weight, having once taken me unawares, I was obliged, my basins being out of repair, to dry it in cherries. It proved to be of the first quality, and I sold it at thirty sols, which was then the highest price. But the weather happened to be perfectly dry, and I had a great proportion of platforms, so that this instance warrants no inference. I must also say, that however favourable the circumstances were, the coffee, though spread very thin upon platforms, where thrice as much might have been laid, was not dry before twenty-one days; while it is in general perfectly so in six or seven days in parchment, even in much thicker beds.

From this instance it is obvious, that many more platforms are necessary to dry in cherries than in parchment. Add to this, that the platforms go rapidly into decay, from the fermentative acid gum dissolving the lime; and even on the supposition that a gain of three per cent. weight were to be obtained generally, which I by no means am certain of, yet this mode of preparation will be found to be more expensive, toilsome, and inconvenient that the other. Lastly,

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Yet, if a planter wants to have coffee of the most perfect quality, either for himself or for his friends, he must set apart a number of his oldest trees, and not gather the fruit till it is ripened into dryness (which indeed is very hurtful to the trees). I believe that the Arabians in Yemen make in that manner their little harvests., The coffee, nourished upon the tree to the last moment, must certainly acquire every perfection it is capable of.

The second method is variously modified, and, in all its forms, is a remote and awkward imitation of the last. The cherries are either bruised and soaked in water to rottenness, or bruised without being soaked, or soaked without being bruised; and in those different states, are brought to dry upon the platforms.

Here there is the same waste of time, almost the same degree of fermentation, notwithstanding, in the first and last instances, the water have dissolved some may of the gum. It is obvious how unpleasant it must be to have, for six months in the year, an immense quantity of putrid nauseous stuff, constantly under the eye; a kind of stuff very properly stigmatised with the homely appellation of cow-dung, which it in reality resembles. The platforms, in this manner, are worn out speedily. The coffee acquires generally more yellow brown, than when dried by the former method; and it is more likely to take an indelible scent of mustiness. The only advantage is that the grinding will not be so hard, as when dried in cherries.

I have only described the two former proceedings, for the purpose of forewarning the planter against them.

I now will explain the last, and by far the best method, namely that of drying in parchment, as practised in the Borgne.

It is the first operation to strip the seed of its outer skin, leaving it clad with the parchment; and this must not be postponed, because the cherries, when heaped together, are disposed to run speedily into fermentation: in consequence of which the pulp may, in twenty-four hours, impart a yellow brown tinge to the seed.

This is called to grate (Grayer, in the Creole French idiom) because it is performed by a grater-mill, of which I shall

try to give, as far as I can, a clear and full description.

First the cherry coffee is laid upon a floor, above the mill, from which it falls, by little and little, into a hopper. This being either sufficiently inclined, or put in motion by the mill, drops the coffee into the grater. The structure of the mill is as follows.

It is supported by a strong wooden frame three feet high, six in length, and about two in breadth. The principal pieces are a roller and grater, two moveable pieces or chops, a wire grate, and a leaping frame.

The roller is supported, at the fall of the hopper, by an iron axletree, running through its centre, which turns rapidly by means of two handles, upon two copper soles, fixed upon the sides of the great frame. The wooden roller is commonly fourteen inches in diameter, and about eighteen in length. If it is longer, as in water mills, the diameter is less.

The middle sixteen inches of the roller are carefully covered with a strong plate of copper, pierced, as a grater, with a strong bodkin, so that every hole has, on the outside, three or four sharp points or asperities. The grater being accurately nailed upon the roller, all the asperities are turned outwards.

Moreover, five strong wooden pegs are fixed at equal distances, at each end of the roller, round the axletree.

The moveable pieces or chops are two pieces of wood, two feet and two inches long, five inches broad, and three inches high. One is superior, the other inferior. These are fixed in the great frame or support, by their ends, which are square; and, by means of wedges, they (the chops) may be placed somewhat nearer to, or further from, the roller. The middle part of the chops, opposite to the grater, is cut in a sloping direction. And their edges, near the roller, are armed with a band of steel about a line thick, and nine or ten broad, between the points.

Now the sloping surface of the superior chop falls towards the roller; that of the inferior falls, on the contrary, backwards, and upon the wire grate placed under it. The edge of the superior slope is placed at such exact distance from the roller, that the cherries are bruised, without injury to the parchment, the seeds being suffered to pass, and finding their way through the interstices between the points of the grater; the skins and seeds then meet with the edge of the inferior slope, which is so close with the grater that the seeds cannot pass. They must of course fall back through the sloping declivity upon the wire grate or sieve; but the skins, which have been flattened, and are besides entangled by the asperities of the grater, pass between it and the inferior

chop, and fall into a gutter behind the mill.*

All the pieces before mentioned must be of mahogany, or other wood of the best

sort.

The wire sieve is stretched upon a square long frame, and the holes are of such dimensions as to let the naked seed pass. It is much inclined, and hangs, by crooks at the great frame, and by the rods at another similar frame, namely the leaping frame, which hangs also, by its middle, from the stirrup, and from the great frame of the mill. By means of the two arms of the leaping frame, which are stretched out on both sides of the roller, the wire grate sieve is put into brisk motion, by the pegs fixed to the roller; by which means the arms alternately sink and rise. Thus the seeds fall through the holes of the sieve into a gutter under the mill, the slope of which causes them to glide into the adjoining basin, where they will soak and be washed. The cherries which happen not to have been bruised, being too big to pass through the sieve, are tossed about till they fall down, at the back end of the mill, into a box, from which they are taken and put again into the hopper.

The grater-mill is liable to inconveniences. If some of the points of the grater are shaper than the others, they bruise the parchment and the seed, which will leave a black mark. If anything hard, as a small stone, happens to crush down any of the points, the cherries that meet them will not be bruised, or if they have been bruised they will pass out, with the skins, behind, and consequently be lost. This must be prevented, by great watchfulness on the part of the negroes; and, when it does happen, the grater must be instantly mended or changed.

It is also evident that the chops must be exactly placed at the proper point. If the upper one is too near the grater, seeds will be injured; if too far, the cherries will pass out unpeeled. If the next is too far, the seeds will pass out; but this can hardly be too near, provided it does not injure the points of the grater.

It is further necessary that a thread of water trickle constantly upon the grater, to assist the coffee in passing more readily.

Eleven negroes are required for the service of a mill; eight to turn, four and four alternately; one to be upon the floor to feed the hopper, one to carry away the skins, and another to carry back the unpeeled cherries into the hopper. This hard work is performed in the evening, when the negroes return from the field; but they like it, because it is rewarded with a small glass of rum.

A good hand-mill, such as that above de

*These skins, kept and rotted, are the best possible manure.

scribed, may pass thirty-three barrels of cherries in an hour. I shall speak afterwards of the mules or water machines, which have been very usefully and ingeniously employed in this manufacture.

The second operation is to wash out the gum from the seeds.

The coffee soaks for twenty-four hours in the basin, being frequently, during this time, turned and tossed with a rake. The more frequently it is tossed or turned, the more perfectly will it be washed; a point material in the preparation. The skins which may have passed with it, when disentangled, rise to the surface, as also the empty and parched seeds. These are thrown (or, if the water runs, it carries them) into a smaller contiguous basin. These are known by the name of scums; being dried and cleaned apart, they pass as coffee of inferior quality.

Though soaking is hurtful to the naked seed, it is observable that, covered with its parchment, it may be soaked any length of time, without being worse for it; as also the cherries; these, however, should be kept from fermenting, by the frequent addition of fresh running water.

Draining is the next work. In general, the coffee is carried by negroes, or by the water itself, to a draining platform, where it is spread out and exposed for twenty-four hours. There is also a separate platform of this sort, for the scums. Yet, when there is abundance of running water, the former may be spared.

the

From thence the coffee (free from gum, and as white as ivory, if it has been well washed) is carried to the drying platform, where it is spread out, as soon as dew of the night is evaporated. If rain has fallen during the night, the platforms must be swept, as also if they are dirty. Here it must be turned several times in the day, with rakes.

As soon as the coffee has left the sun, it must be carefully preserved from the smallest moisture, then it must be pushed, by means of rakes, shovels, and brooms, in the evening, or when rain threatens, into a round, formed with little walls or edges of masonry, placed in the middle of every platform, called here bassicots; where it must be well covered. Every morning it is spread out again; and when it is perfectly dry, friable upon chewing and horn-green, it ought to be carried, while warm, into a close dry store. That the round or bassicot may be warmer during the night, very little coffee is left in it during the day.*

*The bassicots may as well be square as circular, provided they are in the middle of the platform, framed so as to be perfectly drained by the outlets, the interior angles being a little rounded.

For want of something better, the coffee is sometimes covered, in the form of bassicots, with plantain leaves.

Besides this, round conical huts, made with rafters, and thatched, are used for this purpose; but they are so very heavy, that six stout negroes are required to move them; and the ends of the rafters, moreover, injure the platforms.

Others make still more expensive umbrellas of the same form, but framed of joiner's work, and covered with tarred sailcloth. These are certainly very light, but not free, in general, from the inconvenience of spoiling the plaster of the platforms; while their bulk gives so much hold to gusts of wind, that the frames are sometimes found unroofed in the morning, and the coffee soaked with rain. Besides this, they Occupy a great space in the day, upon the platforms, if, as is often the case, there is no level ground near.

SO

It is still better to cover the bassicots with tarpaulins, such as are used on shipboard. These are kept down by eight heavy stones, at the angles and upon the folds, the coffee being heaped into a point underneath. The plaster does not suffer from them; the wind having no hold, they are not even much as ruffled. It will be necessary every year, or second year, to give them a thin coat of tar. Some put a small round hamper underneath, to prevent them from touching the coffee; but the coffee, formed into a pyramid, will give sufficient descent to the tarpaulin. Without ever using that precaution, I can assert that my coffee always preserved, till morning, a considerable degree of warmth under the tarpaulins.

The size of these ought to exceed the diameter of the bassicots by four feet. They are made of good sail-cloth, well sewed, broad-hemmed, and with handles of rope at the angles. It must, however, be foreseen, that tarring will shorten them by a twelfth. Those of the greatest size, made in and brought from France, cost me nine or ten dollars, and I tarred them myself in the following manner.

First they were well soaked with seawater. When quite dry, I besmeared them with tallow, moderately warm, and I left them two hours in the sunshine. Then I covered thinly both sides with hot tar, with a very small quantity of spirit of turpentine. Next I put them for two or three days in the sun; and lastly I dried them in the shade, which is a little tedious. Prepared in this manner, they never break, and a small degree of heat makes them soft as woollen cloth.

It must, however, be remembered, that the tarpaulins must never be folded, but carried away and housed, rolled upon

straight bamboo poles. Near the platforms, also, there ought to be four forks, seven feet high, with two beams, upon which the bamboos are placed during the day, so that the beams may bear thirty tarpaulins, more or less. Thus they are no ways cumbersome; and in summer, when the crop is at an end, they are safely lodged, and require no great room; whereas the bulky huts and umbrellas must remain without doors all the year round, exposed to the injuries of weather.

The remaining part of the preparation is much the same in every district, and on every plantation; the business being to prepare the dry coffee for sale.

This can seldom be done in crop time, as all the negroes are busy; even the intervals afford full employment for all hands in weeding. However, if it can be accomplished at the time, some benefit will perhaps be found at market. But yet, if the storehouse is dry, the parchment coffee will keep above twelve months without any alteration; that dried in cherries will keep for a great number of years.

Now suppose that coffee must be peeled for market: a certain quantity, taken from the store, is laid for two or three hours upon a warm platform, and spread very thin. Eight or ten bagfulls are peeled at once, according to the capacity of the mill. Ten bags produce five of clean coffee, or five hundred-weight.

This engine is less complicated than the former. It is used in several manufactures in Europe; for instance, in grinding apples for cider.

In a circular trough, about ten or twelve inches deep, and of the same breadth, and ten or twelve feet in diameter, made either of hard wood or of mason's work, and then paved with large flat stones, is placed a massy vertical grinder, or wheel, of the heaviest wood, about six feet high, twelve or fourteen inches thick in the centre, and about four in the circumference. An axletree, or tail, passes through it; one end is fixed in the centre of the trough, so as to be capable of turning; the mules are tied to the other, and turn the wheel forward upon the axletree. Thus the coffee is ground round the trough or orbit.

First, a proportion must be observed in the reciprocal distance from the centre to the wheel, and from this to the other end of the axletree; because the lever of resistance is in the former, and the lever of action is in the latter. Accordingly, that the draught be not too hard, the latter distance must be more than double the former. Driving at a brisk trot, a thousand-weight of net coffee may be ground in one hour and a half at

most.

Next, it is commonly supposed that the trough must be wider upwards than at the

bottom, that the coffee may the better fall under the wheel. (Besides, there is a fork fastened behind, which pushes it to the middle as the wheel goes on.) I have experienced the contrary. I myself caused to be made a trough of mahogany, with parallel sides, where the fork brought the coffee to the middle so perfectly, that before it was half ground, nothing but dust was to be found in the angles.

Here the hydraulic engine is also applied. A few planters, for want of a mill, grind with pestles in a long trough, which is tedious and laborious.

The mill breaks the parchment only, never the seed.

If bad weather comes on after the grinding, the coffee ought to be left in the chaff. This absorbs the dampness, and keeps the coffee, for a few days, without alteration.

Next the coffee is winnowed, sometimes in wind, with wooden porringers or shovels; but more properly by a fan-mill, such as those used in Europe for winnowing corn, and which industrious artificers have considerably improved for the use of this manufacture.

The winnowing-mill consists of a fan, made with four plates of tin, or thin planks, mounted upon an axle-tree, at the end of which is a tooth-wheel. Another wheel makes it turn with increased velocity, when worked by a negro, by means of a handle. The whole engine is enclosed in a chest, opened only at the end. The coffee and chaff fall together from the hopper, through a hole, upon a sieve, which, together with the other sieve, is set in motion by the string by means of an oval pulley, and of the wooden spring. The rubbish and unbruised seeds are tossed into the gutter, and from thence into a barrel. But the good coffee falls through the sieve, upon the thicker sieve, where it slides along into a box, as the chaff, meanwhile, is entirely blown away through the open end.*

When the coffee is winnowed, it is passed through hand-sieves, for the purpose of separating the small round cherries which remain still unbruised. Then it is picked upon large tables, where all the black or broken seeds, as well as gravel, are picked out. The cherries are peeled again, and the broken or spotted seeds make coffee of a base quality, which is sold under the name of picking. It is observable, that merchants are more nice about the cleanness of coffee when the demand at the market is less.

The tables will be more convenient if edged with a lath about an inch high, and if there is a bottomless box in the middle,

*The chaff must not be kept, as the skins. It is of a very dry nature. It makes but an overwarm burning manure, and that after a great number of years.

supported upon small triangles, with feet two inches high. The coffee is put into the box, and the pickers lay hold of it as it slides underneath it. Before each of them is a hole, under which a bag is hung, and kept open by crooked nails; as they pick it they throw it into the bags, which are the same in which it is carried to the market.

There must be separate places in the magazine for the scums and the picking. It is almost needless to say that the scums are ground, winnowed, and picked for sale in the same manner, but after the sale of the finer coffee.

When the coffee is perfectly dressed, some planters put it again under the peelingwheel for half a dozen of turns; which makes its appearance brighter, especially if the trough is very smooth and polished.

After this, as soon as possible, the bags are weighed, tied up, and sealed, ready to be sent to town. Great care must be taken that they be not wet on the way.

A careful intelligent negro must be trained up, so as to have perfect knowledge of the manufacture, in all its parts. It is particularly in his province to watch the mills, platforms, basins, and picking, and to observe the appearance of threatening rain when the coffee is spread out.

All this work of preparation is performed by the house servants, the young people who do not go to the field, the women with child, or the nurses. Lastly, the servant maids and hospital attendants assist to sweep the coffee in or out of the bassicots.

TRIMBUK

THE newspapers contain announcements that the cholera has broken out virulently at Trimbuk.

Trimbuk! Where and what is Trimand we propose to answer the inquiry, buk ?-we hear some one inquiring; as well as we can, by a brief account of a visit paid to this romantic but unhealthy spot, in the early part of last year.

Let us suppose the Thull Ghaut reached; from Egutpoora we start across the wild mountains to the northward of it, towards a strange block of curiously formed hills, rising above the surrounding Ghauts, which have been visible during the latter part of our journey through the Konkun.

Passing along the valley of Tringulwaree, over a rough and scarcely passable country, we approach them; and discover three principal elevations, of

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