POUNDING COFFEE.
At one place they saw a native engaged in pounding coffee in a large mortar, to separate the berry from the hull. He had a heavy pestle which he held in both hands, and the perspiration standing on his face showed that the labor was not one of pure pleasure.
On all the large coffee estates improved machinery is in use for the preparation of the product. The berry as it comes from the tree is about the size of an English walnut; the bean is enclosed in a thick husk, and the great point in the preparation is to remove the husk without injuring the bean. Pounding by hand is likely to damage the bean by breaking it, and when this is done the market value of the coffee is considerably reduced. Inventors have studied the problem, and a good many machines have been devised to accomplish the desired separation. The most successful one thus far is the invention of an Englishman in Ceylon, and his machines are in use all over the coffee-producing world.
DUTCH OVERSEERS.
He has called the principle of specific gravity to his aid, and made it very useful. The coffee-berry floats on water, as the husk is very light, but the bean by itself sinks to the bottom. A stream of water floats the berries along a narrow channel, and feeds them automatically into a groove where two plates of copper revolve in opposite directions about half an inch apart. These plates crush the berry, but do not injure the bean; the husk and bean together are carried to a trough, where the bean sinks and is caught in a tub, while the useless husk floats away to whatever distance the water is made to carry it. The coffee is then spread out on a platform and dried in the sun, and it is afterwards sorted, winnowed, and made ready for market. The work is supervised by Dutch overseers, but all the manual labor is performed by natives.
On returning from their ride, and while at breakfast, the boys had a conversation with one of the gentlemen whose acquaintance they had made during the rainy afternoons on the veranda. Fred was curious to know why he did not hear a single native speaking Dutch or English, but confining himself strictly to Malay.
"That is easily explained," said the gentleman. "It is the policy of the Dutch not to teach their language to the natives, but they require all their own officials to learn Malay. They have a school or college in Holland, at the old town of Delft, which was established in 1842, for the express purpose of fitting young men for the East Indian service. Before they can graduate, the students must pass an examination in the usual college studies, and also in the Malay language, Mohammedan justice and laws, and in a knowledge of the country and nations of Netherlands India. Of course they are not expected to speak the Malay language fluently on leaving college, but they know a good deal of it when they land here, and are expected to know more before they have been long in Java. If they are not able to converse easily in Malay by the end of a couple of years, they are liable to be sent home. This makes them study hard, and renders them far more useful than if they could talk only in Dutch.