At a recent meeting of the British Association of Science, Mr. Horsley called attention to the use of bi-chromate of potash, in analysing adulterated samples of coffee. With diluted solutions of pure coffee, this salt produces an intense deep porter-brown coloration, whilst upon decoctions of chicory no effect is produced. He advised the following procedure: Take equal parts of chicory and coffee, and decoct them in different quantities of water. Filter, bottle, and label the liquids. Take a teaspoonful of the chicory, and dilute till it is of a brown sherry colour; boil it in a porcelain dish, with a fragment of crystallised bi-chrome. The colour will be scarcely deepened. If a similarly diluted solution of coffee is thus treated, a deep-brown tinge is obtained. By operating with mixed liquids a scale of colours may be obtained indicating the properties of the two substances. If a few grains of the sulphate of copper be added, both decoctions yield a precipitate; that from chicory being a clay yellow, and that from coffee a sepia brown. Mixed decoctions yield intermediate tints.

SECTION VIII.
CULTURE IN THE WEST INDIES AND AMERICA.

In 1720, a small coffee-plant, raised in the garden of the King at Paris, was transported to the Antilles by Captain Declieux, who, during a long passage, shared each day his small allowance of water with the young coffee plant. From this tree have sprung all those since cultivated in Martinique, Guadaloupe, Cayenne, St. Domingo, and the other islands. The fall of St. Domingo, in 1789, which formerly furnished 80,000,000 lbs., the disfavour the culture has fallen into in Martinique and Guadaloupe islands, which used to supply 16,000,000 or 17,000,000 lbs., together with the greater attention given to sugar cultivation in the West Indies, have transferred the production of coffee chiefly to Brazil, Ceylon, and Java.

In 1801, 526,000 cwts. of coffee were imported into Great Britain from the West Indies, and the average annual imports in the six years ending 1806 was 364,000 cwts. The decrease of production is shown by the following figures:

1829. 1850. 1860.
lbs. lbs. lbs.
Jamaica 18,690,654 4,196,210 6,145,362
British Guiana 7,163,016 18,472 —
Trinidad 73,667 96,376 —
Dominica 942,113 792 10,000
St. Lucia 303,499 39 —

Jamaica.—The coffee-plant is said to have been first introduced into Jamaica by Sir Nicholas Lawes, in 1728, when it was cultivated on an estate called Temple Hall, on the plains of Liguanea, not far from Kingston. In 1752, 6,000,000 lbs. of coffee were exported, and in the three years ending 1807, the average annual shipment was 28,500,000 lbs. It was not until the island trade was injured by the dismemberment of Honduras that the heavy duties on sugar, and the competition of the French colonies, induced the industrious planters to turn their attention to coffee. They then petitioned for a protecting bounty, and for a considerable time this was the only British colony where its cultivation was much attended to. In 1791 there were 607 coffee-plantations in the island, with 21,000 negroes employed on them. In 1844, there were 671 plantations, and it was calculated that 20,000,000l. sterling was invested in them. Some of the finest and most productive plantations were at an elevation of 4700 feet, in the vicinity of the Blue Mountain Peak. Whilst in 1809, 83,250,000 lbs. of coffee were shipped from Jamaica, the average export for ten years past has not exceeded 6,000,000 lbs.

In the West Indies and Central America a nursery of young plants is usually raised from seed. At the age of six months these are transplanted into the field in squares of 8 to 9 feet apart. Beyond keeping the field clear of weeds, giving the plants a slight moulding, and freeing them of suckers or sprouts, they do not require any other attention for the first three years. At the expiry of this time they commence to bear fruit, and the coffee is cured either by drying the entire fruit in the sun, or by passing the fruit through what is called a pulping mill, which separates the outer pulp or covering from the beans. The beans are then subjected to a washing in a tank full of water, in order to remove the glutinous substance which adheres to them; this causes them to cure or dry more rapidly. They are then left in what is called the parchment husk, and exposed to the action of the sun on platforms laid with tiles, until they are perfectly dried, and from this they are, during crop time, spread on the wooden floors of a building called a logie, to the depth, in a heavy crop, of 12 to 18 inches. Whilst thus spread, great attention is necessary to prevent the coffee getting heated and its colour destroyed, by constantly turning it up, and by the use of some dry lime or ashes sprinkled over it. After this the beans are subjected to the operation of what is called a stamping mill, which separates the parchment husk from the beans. This stamping mill is merely two large solid wheels fixed on each end of a beam on an axle, and worked by mules moving round in a circle—the wooden wheels working in a circular trough filled with the coffee beans. After this the whole are submitted to the action of a winnowing machine, which separates the chaff from the beans, and subsequently the beans are passed through copper sieves to separate the perfect from the broken coffee, and finally handpicked and put into bags or casks for shipment.

British Guiana.—Coffee was for a length of time almost the only staple of Berbice and Demerara, but the cultivation of the sugar-cane has been substituted for it. The quantity of coffee, the produce of British Guiana, exported in 1830 was, 9,472,756 lbs.; in 1840, 3,357,300 lbs.; in 1849, 100,550 lbs.; and in 1850, 30,000 lbs.; since which it has almost ceased to be exported, scarcely sufficient being produced to supply the demand in the colony.

At one time there were about two hundred coffee plantations in the small island of Dominica, and four to five million of pounds of coffee were exported annually to Great Britain.

Porto Rico.—In proportion to its extent, this island is twice as productive as Cuba, and the quality of its coffee and other produce is of the highest class. There were, in 1862, fifty-three coffee plantations on the island, producing about 100,000 cwt. of coffee. The exports of coffee were, in