Coffee and chicory

by P. L. Simmonds

A cold glass tumbler taken into the store in a warm day, when the fans were not in motion, became instantly dimmed and wet by the precipitation of moisture from the internal air. When another glass was taken into the store, one minute after the fans were put in motion, it remained clear, without a trace of moisture.

A very satisfactory result soon showed itself, viz. that whilst the temperature of the air as it entered the moist coffee was 80° in a warm day, the temperature of the coffee itself, as indicated by an immersed thermometer, was only 58°; the wet coffee being invariably coldest when the air that was made to pass through it was warmest. This paradox admitted of easy explanation, when it was considered that each bean of undried coffee was under similar circumstances to evaporating vessels of water placed in a draught of warm air for the purpose of cooling the water. The cold thus produced was, therefore, the necessary concomitant of the evaporation that was going on, and the difference between these temperatures afforded a measure of the drying power in different states of the weather. The circumstance of the hot air lowering the temperature of the coffee was also favourable in another point of view, seeing that it has been shown that heat is one of the conditions which promotes mouldiness, or the germination of fungi.

Every bushel of parchment coffee contains half a cubic foot of air, a fact ascertained by a bushel which took thirty-three measures of water to fill it. When full of newly-washed coffee it took thirteen of these measures of the water to displace the air from the interstices of the beans without overflowing, so that we have 13—33 of air in a bushel of coffee; in other words, half a cubic foot. Hence, the fans in use are capable of giving a fresh atmosphere to 28,000 bushels of coffee every minute, or in the same time four fresh atmospheres to 7000 bushels.

During a continuance of nearly three months of wet weather which occurred at one crop time, the coffee in the curing-house dried very slowly, but was kept in a perfectly fresh and sweet state without the intervention of any manual labour, further than in depositing each day’s increase in the lower floor to dry off the surface water, and removing that of each previous day to the upper floor, where it was spread on the top of all the coffee that had previously accumulated. These three months of wet weather were succeeded by a fortnight of very dry weather, and, on examining the coffee at the end of that period, it was found to have reached the dry horny stage at which it is usual to despatch it from the estate to Colombo, for the purpose of being peeled and shipped. On examining the beans they were found to be of that clear colour which distinguishes coffee carefully cured in small quantities, with the advantage of the most favourable weather. Under like circumstances, viz. during such a continuation of wet weather, it would have been impossible to preserve the coffee free from more or less mustiness of smell, by manual labour employed in the usual way, whilst at the same time the expense of storework would have been more than fourfold. The whole expense of the storework, viz. pulping, washing, curing, and storing the Rathoongodde coffee, amounted to 2¼d. per cwt., and when it is considered that during crop time the value of every man’s labour is greatly increased, it is an object, as far as possible, to substitute mechanical contrivance for manual labour, so that all hands may be employed in gathering the crop as it ripens.

Every planter knows that when coffee is spread out in a single layer on the floor of his store, it becomes dry after a time, and is well cured without any further attention on his part; but it is impossible to devote sufficient space for this purpose without incurring an expense which would be quite incompatible with his circumstances. When, however, coffee is thus spread out in a single layer, it is obvious that the reason why it requires no attention is, because the beans being freely exposed to the atmosphere, there is naturally a constant change of the air by which they are surrounded; the same air is not sufficiently long in contact with the beans to excite the first action of decomposition, and the absorption of oxygen is not accomplished. Presuming, however, that it were so, the subsequent actions could not take place, for the products of the first action, viz. carbonic acid, heat and watery vapour, would immediately make their escape and be dissipated by the atmosphere, which is precisely what takes place when, by mechanical means, a draught of air is carried through a mass of coffee. Hence, it is evident that the requirements of space are overcome by the adoption of this plan, and that a great mass of coffee is placed under conditions similar to those by which a single layer is influenced when exposed to a natural draught of atmospheric air.

SECTION XIV.
CULTIVATION IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

Southern India is becoming as celebrated for its coffee, as Northern India for its tea. We find that the exports of coffee from Madras have increased considerably during the last five years, and there is every reason for supposing that Southern India will shortly become the chief coffee-producing country of the world. We have no idea of the number of acres of land under coffee cultivation in the Madras Presidency, but it must be very large, for after its local wants have been supplied, coffee to the value of half a million sterling is exported.

In 1858-59 the shipments were 7,288,421 lbs. to foreign ports, and 4,083,917 lbs. to Indian ports. In 1862-63 the shipments were 16,292,238 lbs. to foreign ports, and 3,976,766 lbs. to Indian ports.

Though some parts of India are well adapted to the culture, it is not yet so extensively cultivated as might have been expected from the vicinity of its Arabian sites to the Malabar coast. There, however, some excellent coffee is grown, as well as in the hilly regions of Mysore and on the slopes of the Neilgherries, and some of these are of such good quality, and so carefully prepared, as to bring the same price as Mocha coffee. Some very good specimens of coffee have also been produced in the interior of India, as in the district of Chota Nagpore, where the culture might apparently be greatly extended, and be of great benefit for consumption in that part of the country.

According to local tradition, the coffee-plant was introduced into Mysore by a Mussulman pilgrim, named Baba Booden, who came from Arabia about two hundred years ago, and took up his abode as a hermit in the uninhabited hills in the Nuggur Division named after him, and where he established a college, which still exists, endowed by government. It is said that he brought some coffee-berries from Mocha, which he planted near to his hermitage, about which there are now to be seen some very old coffee-trees. However this may be, there is no doubt that the coffee-plant has been known in that neighbourhood from time immemorial, but the berry has never come into general use among the people for a beverage. It is only of late years that the coffee trade of these districts has become of any magnitude, or that planting has been carried to any important extent. The export of coffee from British India, which in 1851 was only 3239 tons, had increased in 1861 to 8535 tons; about one-fourth of this is shipped from Bombay, and nearly all the remainder from Madras.