How We are Fed Part 7

There are some plants that have just come up, and some that are ready to transplant. They are set out in rows, six or eight feet apart each way, and sometimes more.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 34.--A Coffee Nursery.]

The trees would grow much taller than those you see in the picture, if they were not kept pruned. Do you know why they are prevented from growing tall? Whenever you look at a coffee plantation, you see the dark green foliage of the tree, which is an evergreen. Lupe is very fond of the blossoms. They are clear white and very fragrant.

A tree will yield a small amount the second year after planting, but it will not produce a full crop for five or more years. Two pounds is a good average crop for a tree.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 35.--Picking Coffee.]

The children like to watch the pickers as they go from tree to tree.

Many of them are about their own age. Some carry a sack slung over the shoulders, and others carry baskets or pails. The _berries_ must be picked by hand, for they do not all ripen at once. They are dark scarlet in color and look a little like cranberries. A good picker gathers about three bushels in a day. The pickers are given a check every time they fill a basket. Sometimes Juan tends to this work, and he enjoys it very much. At the end of each week the pickers are paid according to the number of checks they have.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 36.--Coffee Berries.]

Within the berry are two kernels or seeds, with their flat sides together. These are called "coffee beans." It is these beans from which the drink is made.

The picking is but a small part of the work of preparing coffee for the market. The first operation is removing the pulp. This used to be done by tramping on the berries, but now it is done in a better way.

The berries are thrown into a large tank filled with water, which carries them through a pipe to the pulping machine. This machine removes the pulp and separates the beans.

Next the beans are carried to a second tank, where they remain for about twenty-four hours, to wash off a sticky substance which covers the sh.e.l.l of the bean.

If you have ever put beans or peas into a basin of water, you have noticed that nearly all of them sink, while a few float. These latter are the poor ones. This is the way in which the good and bad coffee beans are separated. A pipe carries off the seeds that float on the surface of the water.

The beans are dried on cement floors upon which they are spread. This drying takes a long time. Before sunset each day the coffee must be carried under shelter, for the dew injures it. While they are drying, the workmen stir them. Sometimes artificial heat is used, but this is expensive. Juan's father has a watchman whose duty it is to guard the coffee at night, for it is very valuable.

Each bean is covered by a strong sh.e.l.l, or hull, which has to be removed. The soaking has loosened this, and so it comes off easier than it otherwise would. Juan and Lupe often watch the wheels of the huller as they turn, moved by patient oxen.

There are two wheels set upright over a circular box, into which the coffee is put. As it pa.s.ses between the wheels and the bottom of the box, the hulls are removed. Underneath the hull is a thin skin, which is also taken off.

In some countries people want the coffee dyed or colored. A bluish color is given to it by coating the wheels of the hulling machine with lead.

The hulls are separated from the beans in a winnowing machine, and the coffee is then sorted. Often this is done by hand. The beans are spread out on a table, and girls and boys, and sometimes grown persons, sort it into several grades.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 37.--Sorting and sacking Coffee.]

Juan's father has this work done by machinery. The coffee is put into a cylinder, in the bottom of which there are holes of different sizes by which it is graded.

The last process is to sack the coffee and send it by railroad to Rio Janeiro. Of course it is neither roasted nor ground until it reaches its destination.

We do not produce coffee in our country, but we are the greatest coffee drinkers in the world. A large part of our supply comes from Brazil.

Trace the course of the ship from Rio Janeiro to New York. Juan has often done this, and his father has promised to take him with him sometime, when he goes with a cargo of coffee.

You naturally think that coffee of different names must come from different countries, or at least from different trees. This is not always the case. Several brands may come from the same tree. The name depends partly upon the size and the general appearance of the beans.

Coffee is a native of the far East, but it has gradually been transplanted to other countries, until it is now very extensively used.

Brazil, Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, the Hawaiian Islands, Java, Ceylon, and Arabia are coffee-raising countries.

In 1551 coffee found its way to the city of Constantinople; in 1652 it had reached London; and in 1720 it was planted in the West Indies. You see it worked its way westward rather slowly.

Several hundred years ago, coffee was very expensive, so that only the rich could afford to use it. Instead of drinking it at home, people went to "coffeehouses," where it was served. To these "coffeehouses" men brought whatever news they had heard and told it to one another. In this way these places served about the same purpose that newspapers do now.

THE TEA GARDENS OF CHINA

At the bottom of the teapot you will find some leaves. Spread one of them out carefully. You can see that it was once long and slender, a little like willow leaves. It may have grown in some garden in far-away China, for we get a great deal of tea from that country.

I have told you how close together the people live on the fertile plains of eastern China. There is so little room that many live on boats on the rivers and in the harbors. On this account their farms are not so large as ours.

The tea trees in the gardens are about five or six feet high. If they were allowed to, they would reach a height of twenty-five feet; but they are kept trimmed for the same reasons that the coffee trees are pruned.

The trees are raised from seeds, and are generally planted on land which slopes toward the south. What advantage is this?

In about three years after planting, the first crop of leaves can be gathered. In China they are usually gathered four times each year, and the trees continue to yield for twenty-five or thirty years.

When the leaves are picked, they are full of sap or juice, and so have to be dried. The drying is usually done on trays made of bamboo. While they are drying, they are rubbed and rolled between the palms of the hands, so that they may dry more quickly and evenly.

Next the leaves are placed, a few at a time, in iron pans over a charcoal fire. They are left in these but a short time, for they are hot. This process is called "firing." Sometimes the leaves are "fired"

but once, and sometimes twice.

The tea is then spread out, and broken bits of stems are removed. Some of the tea growers place the tea in baskets which are suspended over slow fires, for drying.

If you were to look into some of the _tea-hongs_ or houses where tea is cured and packed, you would find the tea dried in a very curious fashion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 38.--Picking Tea. "Pinehurst," South Carolina.]

In one of the rooms you would see several Chinamen rolling and tossing b.a.l.l.s about with their bare feet. The b.a.l.l.s are about the size of footb.a.l.l.s and are partly filled with tea. Although it looks like play, it is hard work. As the b.a.l.l.s are tossed about, the tea leaves are given their rounded or twisted appearance. From time to time the workers stop and tie the bags up more closely at the neck. This method is used in making _gunpowder tea_.

Black and green teas are not different varieties, but are produced by different methods of handling.

In the great tea-hongs there are professional _tasters_,--that is, men who do nothing but sip tea from small cups, so as to grade it and fix its value. This is considered a very particular line of work and requires an educated taste.

The ocean atmosphere has a bad effect on tea, so that the very finest grades are seldom sent across the sea. When tea is to be shipped by water, it is placed in boxes lined with a sort of sheet lead. This protects the tea greatly. Most of the tea sent to the United States lands at San Francisco. Why? How does it get to other parts of our country?

Great quant.i.ties of tea are pressed into the form of bricks and sent over mountains and across deserts into Russia.

This is called "brick tea." The Russians are great tea drinkers, and whenever any one calls in Russia, tea is served. They call their teapot a _samovar_.

Better tea is obtained from Ceylon and India than from China. In these countries Europeans have charge of most of the tea farms, and they have carefully studied the cultivation and handling of tea.

There is a little tea raised in our own country in the state of South Carolina. It is very fine in quality and people are willing to pay a high price for it. Some of it has been sold for five dollars a pound.

When tea was first brought into Europe, it was regarded as a great luxury, just as coffee was. People paid as much as fifty dollars a pound for it. It is said that some of the tea raised to-day for the royal family of China, is worth a hundred dollars a pound.

Many people in this country do not enjoy a cup of tea unless they have milk and sugar in it. The Chinese do not use either in their tea. In Russia it is quite common to draw the tea through a lump of sugar held between the teeth.