The process of separating the elaine from the stearine, by pressure, in manner aforesaid, had never before been applied to the substance called cocoa-nut oil, and consequently no product had heretofore been obtained thereby from that substance, fit for being manufactured into candles in the ordinary way, or for being refined by any of the usual modes, so as to burn in ordinary lamps, both which objects are obtained by this method of preparing or manufacturing the said substance.
Candles well made from the above material are a very superior article. The light produced is more brilliant than from the same sized candle made of tallow; the flame is perfectly colourless, and the wick remains free from cinder, or any degree of foulness during combustion.
COFFEE. The coffee is the seed of a tree of the family rubiaceæ, and belongs to the Pentandria monogynia of Linnæus. There are several species of the genus, but the only one cultivated is the Coffæa Arabica, a native of Upper Ethiopia and Arabia Felix. It rises to the height of 15 or 20 feet; its trunk sends forth opposite branches in pairs above and at right angles to each other; the leaves resemble those of the common laurel, although not so dry and thick. From the angle of the leaf-stalks small groups of white flowers issue, which are like those of the Spanish jasmine. These flowers fade very soon, and are replaced by a kind of fruit not unlike a cherry, which contains a yellow glairy fluid, enveloping two small seeds or berries convex upon one side, flat and furrowed upon the other in the direction of the long axis. These seeds are of a horny or cartilaginous nature; they are glued together, each being surrounded with a peculiar coriaceous membrane. They constitute the coffee of commerce.
It was not till towards the end of the 15th century that the coffee tree began to be cultivated in Arabia. Historians usually ascribe the discovery of the use of coffee as a beverage to the superior of a monastery there, who, desirous of preventing the monks from sleeping at their nocturnal services, made them drink the infusion of coffee upon the report of shepherds, who pretended that their flocks were more lively after browsing on the fruit of that plant. The use of coffee was soon rapidly spread, but it encountered much opposition on the part of the Turkish government, and became the occasion of public assemblies. Under the reign of Amurath III. the mufti procured a law to shut all the coffee-houses, and this act of suppression was renewed under the minority of Mahomet IV. It was not till 1554 under Solyman the Great that the drinking of coffee was accredited in Constantinople; and a century elapsed before it was known in London and Paris. Solyman Aga introduced its use into the latter city in 1669, and in 1672 an Armenian established the first café at the fair of Saint Germain.
When coffee became somewhat of a necessary of life from the influence of habit among the people, all the European powers who had colonies between the tropics, projected to form plantations of coffee trees in them. The Dutch were the first who transported the coffee plant from Moka to Batavia, and from Batavia to Amsterdam. In 1714 the magistrates of that city sent a root to Louis XIV. which he caused to be planted in the Jardin du Roi. This became the parent stock of all the French coffee plantations in Martinique.
The most extensive culture of coffee is still in Arabia Felix, and principally in the kingdom of Yemen, towards the cantons of Aden and Moka. Although these countries are very hot in the plains, they possess mountains where the air is mild. The coffee is generally grown halfway up on their slopes. When cultivated on the lower grounds it is always surrounded by large trees which shelter it from the torrid sun, and prevent its fruit from withering before their maturity. The harvest is gathered at three periods, the most considerable occurs in May, when the reapers begin by spreading cloths under the trees, then shaking the branches strongly, so as to make the fruit drop, which they collect, and expose upon mats to dry. They then pass over the dried berries a very heavy roller, to break the envelopes, which are afterwards winnowed away with a fan. The interior bean is again dried before being laid up in store.
In Demerara, Berbice, and some of our West India islands, where much good coffee is now raised, a different mode of treating the pulpy fruit and curing the beans is adopted. When the cherry-looking berry has assumed a deep-red colour it is gathered, and immediately subjected to the operations of a mill composed of two wooden rollers, furnished with iron plates, which revolve near a third fixed roller called the chops. The berries are fed into a hopper above the rollers, and falling down between them and the chops, they are stripped of their outer skins and pulp, while the twin beans are separated from each other. These beans then fall upon a sieve, which allows the skin and the pulp to pass through, while the hard beans accumulate and are progressively slid over the edge into baskets. They are next steeped for a night in water, thoroughly washed in the morning, and afterwards dried in the sun. They are now ready for the peeling mill, a wooden edge wheel turned vertically by a horse yoked to the extremity of its horizontal axis. In travelling over the coffee, it bursts and detaches the coriaceous or parchment-like skin which surrounds each hemispherical bean. It is then freed from the membranes by a winnowing machine, in which four pieces of tin made fast to an axle are caused to revolve with great velocity. Corn fanners would answer better than this rude instrument of negro invention. The coffee is finally spread upon mats or tables, picked clean, and packed up for shipment.
The most highly esteemed coffee is that of Moka. It has a smaller and a rounder bean; a more agreeable taste and smell than any other. Its colour is yellow. Next to it in European reputation is the Martinique and Bourbon coffees; the former is larger than the Arabian and more oblong; it is rounded at the ends; its colour is greenish, and it preserves almost always a silver gray pellicle, which comes off in the roasting. The Bourbon coffee approaches nearest to the Moka from which it originally sprung. The Saint Domingo coffee has its two extremities pointed, and is much less esteemed than the preceding.
The coffee tree flourishes in hilly districts where its root can be kept dry, while its leaves are refreshed with frequent showers. Rocky ground, with rich decomposed mould in the fissures, agrees best with it. Though it would grow, as we have said, to the height of 15 or 20 feet, yet it is usually kept down by pruning to that of five feet for increasing the production of the fruit, as well as for the convenience of cropping. It begins to yield fruit the third year, but is not in full bearing till the fifth, does not thrive beyond the twenty-fifth, and is useless in general at the thirtieth. In the coffee husbandry, the plants should be placed eight feet apart, as the trees throw out extensive horizontal branches, and in holes ten or twelve feet deep to secure a constant supply of moisture.