_Coffee_
From an obscure origin the habit of coffee-drinking has grown to be
almost universal. That the natural home of the plant itself is Abyssinia
or East Africa is generally known, but how its fruit came to be used in
the making of a beverage is the subject of many legends. One ancient
Mohammedan tradition tells how the superior of a monastery, observing
that goats eating the coffee berries became very wakeful and lively at
night, prepared a decoction of the berries, in order to keep his
dervishes awake when the religious services at the mosque demanded their
attention during the whole of the night. He proved the efficacy of the
beverage, and recommended it to his co-religionists, who, on discovering
that it was pleasant as well as useful, soon acquired the coffee habit,
and frequently refreshed themselves throughout the day with the dark
brown liquid.
So popular did coffee-drinking become amongst the faithful that one
section endeavoured to put down the practice, which they looked upon as
an evil. They alleged that it was an intoxicant, and as such was
expressly forbidden by the Koran. Their religious zeal or bigotry was
not, however, so powerful as the hold which the coffee bean had acquired
over the people, and the custom of coffee-drinking, now time-honoured
throughout the East, has spread, not only over the whole of Europe, but
practically throughout the world.
The first coffee-house or café was established in Constantinople early
in the sixteenth century, and its popularity was such as to arouse the
hostility of the priesthood, who saw in the attractions of the café a
serious menace to the attendances at the mosque. Thus that which
according to legend had originated as an aid to worship, came to be
regarded as an enemy to devotion, and a bitter feeling was aroused which
persisted for many years.
For a century the habit was almost exclusively practised by the
Orientals, but in the middle of the seventeenth century it spread to
France and England. In the year 1652 a coffee-house was opened in
London, in St. Michael’s Alley, Cornhill, and was the forerunner of many
rival establishments that quickly opened throughout the capital.
These houses came to be frequented more particularly by the political
and literary circles of the day, and in the reign of Charles II a royal
proclamation was issued against coffee-shops, alleging them to be the
rendezvous of disaffected persons; but this was not such an effective
check upon the spread of the habit as was the imposition of a heavy tax
upon the article. It is remarkable that although coffee, tea, and cocoa
were all introduced into Europe about the same time, the preference for
tea in England has been as steady as the predilection for coffee in
France.
Until the end of the seventeenth century the chief source of the coffee
supply was Arabia, but in 1690 the plant was introduced into Java by the
Dutch, who also placed one specimen in the Botanical Gardens at
Amsterdam as a curiosity, from which plant seeds were afterwards planted
in Dutch Guiana. Indeed, from this one plant at Amsterdam the coffee
plantations of the New World may be said to have sprung. The islands of
the Caribbean Sea were soon supplied with seeds, and plantations were
laid out in many localities, which experience proved were the most
favourable for the production of the best crops. It is uncertain how the
coffee plant came to be introduced into Brazil. One story is that a
runaway from Cayenne took a few seeds to Para or Maranhão, somewhere
about the year 1761, and that some years later two or three plants were
conveyed from there to the city of Rio de Janeiro, where they were
cultivated in a private garden, probably by way of a novelty. Even at
the beginning of the nineteenth century the cultivation of coffee was
not looked upon by the Brazilians as deserving of any serious attention,
and they had not much use themselves, except as medicine, for the
beverage which to-day is hardly ever out of their mouths.
The State of São Paulo was the first to give serious attention to the
cultivation of coffee, and as a result has reaped the reward of being
the most prosperous State in the whole of Brazil. The interior of São
Paulo (which lies between 20° and 25° S. latitude) possesses a rich and
productive soil, with a climate whose temperature and rainfall are
eminently suited for the cultivation of many kinds of agricultural
produce, and it was in the Campuias district that coffee was first
planted and developed on an extensive scale. From this district the
cultivation has spread all over the State, until São Paulo is almost
synonymous with the name of coffee. The rapid development of the
industry has placed Brazil in the forefront of coffee-producing
countries, and the annual output from its ports exceeds that of all
other ports put together. To-day there are over 361.572.12 alqueires of
land under coffee cultivation alone, whilst the prosperity of this
industry has given an impetus to agriculture generally, and the growing
of sugar, rice, maize, beans, tobacco, vine, and manioc, all engage the
attention of farmers in the State.
[Illustration: A FAZENDA.]
A large number of “fazendas” or farms are in the hands of Brazilians
themselves, and many more are worked and owned by persons of Italian,
Portuguese, German, English, French, and Spanish nationalities. These
coffee fazendas are all very much alike, and the traveller through the
country is quickly impressed by the high state of cultivation that this
profitable industry has developed. No visitor to São Paulo should depart
without seeing a fazenda, as the coffee plantation is called, and the
hospitality and kindness of the Paulistas to strangers make a visit
pleasurable as well as memorable.
The estate of Senhor Antonio Prado, a Brazilian gentleman who has done
much for the beautifying of the capital, lies about 230 miles therefrom,
and the journey by rail is through a country full of interest and
beauty. The towns and villages that lie along the route are partially
hidden by the dense foliage of the tropical vegetation that bespeaks the
richness of the soil. The undulating hills through which the railway
winds offer a change of view at every moment of the journey. The rich
red earth accentuates and intensifies the green of the foliage, whilst
the stain of it tinges everything it touches. The railway carriages,
constructed on American models, are full of the fine red dust, and the
passengers have a ruddy hue when they descend from a journey through the
country. The whitewash of the buildings and cotton clothes of the
peasants are all more or less tinted with the eternal red of the soil.
The Prado fazenda, situated upon rising ground, is a low, one-story
building encircled with verandahs. Brilliant-coloured flowers grow in
front of it, luxurious creepers entwine themselves around the supports
of its verandahs, and tall palms nod their heads above its roofs. The
floors of broad, hard-wood planks are red with the stain of the
all-pervading earth.
The “fazendiero” lives well, and his table groans under a plentiful
variety of meat, vegetables, rice, bread, and sweetmeats, to which
visitors and friends from neighbouring plantations are welcomed round
the board. From the verandahs the view is extensive, a waving sea of
green, except when the bloom is on the coffee plant, when the white
flakes of colour suggest fallen snow, very refreshing to the eye in the
intense heat.
A ride through the coffee trees on this estate could be extended for
many miles, but the lanes and vistas are all very much alike, appealing
most strongly to the sense of distance and extent.
Beyond the region planted lies the wild forest, thick woods almost
impenetrable, save where patches of land, full of gaunt, half-burnt
stumps, betoken clearings in process of being turned into
plantations--a preparation that takes no little time and much labour.
[Illustration: A COFFEE FAZENDIERO.]
The formation of a plantation occupies four years before the trees bear
fruit. The trees are raised from seed in the nurseries, and the young
shrubs planted out in regular rows from eight to nine feet apart, the
work being carried out by colonies of settlers who are of many
nationalities. These colonies are scattered up and down the estate, and
are housed in rows of neat dwellings, with tiled roofs and whitewashed
walls. They form tiny villages, each with its own type of inhabitants,
its own manners and customs according to the nationality of the
settlers. As a rule, a family have a certain number of trees to look
after, and their work of weeding, tending, and picking is confined to
one portion of the estate, upon which there are 2,300,000 trees, varying
from thirteen to thirty-three years of age. The work is divided amongst
eight colonies, comprising 360 families, in all about 2800
souls--Italian, Swiss, Spanish, Austrian, Portuguese, Brazilians, and
about sixty Japanese. The trees are planted in squares of about 5000
trees, and a man and his wife can look after about 4000 trees. The
picking of the berries commences in the month of May, and goes on till
October, whilst from October to May the work of cleaning the grounds of
weeds is in full swing. Harrows, drawn by mules and horses, are employed
upon the broader passages between the trees, but for the narrower
divisions the hoe is used. The long avenues stretch out in all
directions, lanes of red earth five and six miles long in straight,
unbroken lines from eight to twenty feet high on either side. These
trees are always green, and four times in the season beautiful pure
white flowers burst forth to relieve the monotony of colour. The first
flowers appear in July, and last for eight days, leaving behind a small
growing berry to develop and ripen. There are three other flowering
periods until the end of October, and the fruit or berries formed from
the flowers are in progressive stages of ripening during the picking
season. Thus there is a continual flowering and picking of the coffee
during the same months, and the pickers have to take care that they only
pull the ripened berries. This, however, is not difficult, as the young
and newly formed berries have a firmer attachment to the trees than the
older and ripened fruit. The crop of berries plucked at the beginning of
the season in May are black, being the fruit of the first flowers of the
preceding year. Red berries are the fruit of the second flowers, and
green berries of the third. The proper time for pulling is when the
green berries of the previous years are full. The hand is drawn along
the branch, which is thus stripped of all but the young berries of the
current year. Then the pulled berries are taken in carts drawn by mules
or oxen to the “lavadors” or washing tanks.
There are several kinds of coffee cultivated upon this estate, a
practice quite common among the fazendieros of São Paulo. One variety,
the “Bourbon,” is an early and regular producer, and for this reason is
largely cultivated, since the fever of production seized the planters,
in consequence of the rise in the price of coffee. This variety does not
grow very high nor bear large-sized beans. Its life is shorter than many
other varieties, it is sensitive and delicate, its branches lacking in
flexibility, and it does not yield very large quantities of fruit. But
against all these disadvantages, the planters set the fact that it can
be grown rapidly, bringing a quick return to the owner.
[Illustration: COLONISTS’ HOUSES AT MARTINO PRADO.]
The common or native coffee tree has, however, most to commend it. It is
strong, hardy, and well acclimatised, and has a long life, while its
beans are large, and sell for the highest prices upon the market. Long
experience has determined that it is the plant best adapted for the
climate, and its flexible branches render the operation of gathering a
simple one, which does not render the tree liable to damage. Its only
drawback is the irregularity of its crop, which is good and poor in
alternating years.
All the older plantations are stocked with this variety, and there is no
doubt that, in spite of other considerations, it is destined to remain
when the “Bourbon” variety shall have disappeared.
The “Bomcatu” or “Amarello” is a variety very similar to the common
coffee, but has yellow berries, whilst the “Murta” is another variety
which is very little grown, having too great an abundance of foliage at
the expense of the fruit.
At the “terrains” the gathered coffee is sorted by an ingenious process.
The berries, black, red, and green all mixed together, are put into a
tank of water, and the black berries being the lightest, float to the
surface, and are run off along a cemented channel to a large concreted
terrace, where they are spread out to dry in the sun.
The red and green berries left behind are floated down another cemented
channel to a machine which detaches the outer skins of the red berries,
leaving the beans, which are now separated from the green berries, still
intact, by a process of sifting in revolving perforated drums. These
beans are now spread out upon the terrain, as are also the green
berries, to be sun-dried in their turn.
The time occupied in the drying process depends, of course, upon the
sun, the black fruit generally drying in from eight to ten days. The
beans of the red fruit, known as washed coffee, take time to colour, and
after three or four days are banked up, and covered from the rain, until
they assume the washed coffee colour. The green berries, in their turn,
take longer, generally about twenty days.
When thoroughly dried, the berries and beans alike pass into a series of
chambers called the Machina de Beneficiar Café, where, by means of
elaborate machinery, the berries are decorticated and the beans sorted
in their various sizes. The husks and also the thin skins of the beans
which are removed by winnowing are blown through a long tube to a heap
outside, and preserved as manure, to be sprinkled between the trees and
ploughed into the ground.
The beans, sorted into qualities of size and shape, are placed in sacks
and sent by railway (which comes right alongside the Machina) down to
Santos, the greatest shipping port for this product in the whole of
Brazil.
The Martino Prado estate contributes about sixty thousand bags a year
towards the annual output of over ten million bags which are exported
from the State of São Paulo.
As the productive life of a coffee tree may be estimated at about forty
years its cultivation is attended with much profit, and a law has been
enacted by the State to prevent too many estates being brought into
existence. Planting to replace dead or unfruitful trees is in no way
restricted, the aim being to keep the production of the commodity from
getting out of hand and to prevent the world’s markets being flooded
with more coffee than is ordinarily consumed.
It was in 1906-1907 that the danger of over-production first attracted
the serious attention of the “faziendieros,” who became alarmed at the
prospect of a great lowering of prices. The season’s yield had been a
record one, and threatened to cause a fall in price that meant ruin to
many of the planters, and a serious crisis to the State of São Paulo,
whose capital and resources were largely bound up in coffee culture. The
Government had, in 1900, placed an almost prohibitive tax upon the
creation of new plantations in order to check production and save the
existing faziendieros from financial catastrophe, but were again faced
with a perplexing situation, which resulted in the scheme of
artificially upholding the price of coffee. With the assistance of the
neighbouring States of Rio de Janeiro and Minas-Geraes, the São Paulo
Government bought up the necessary number of sacks to relieve the
market, and by preserving the balance between supply and demand kept the
price at a figure remunerative to the planters. The credit to purchase
the overplus was effected by the three States already named, and was
guaranteed by an extra tax of one shilling and eightpence upon each sack
of coffee exported from Santos or Rio. By means of loans from foreign
banks the Governments were able to purchase and keep out of the market
eight million sacks of coffee already stored in different parts of the
world, and as coffee improves by age, the surplus thus bought up is
being gradually disposed of at an enhanced price. This operation has
been the subject of much controversy, many economists looking upon it as
initiating a dangerous policy, whilst others claim that it has been
amply justified by the good results that have followed to the State.
There can be no doubt that had the exceptional yield of 1906-1907
reached the market, a fall in prices, disastrous alike to the planters
and to the State, would have resulted. The smaller crops of the
succeeding years have favoured the release of the stored surplus without
any lowering of prices, and the bold experiment has so far been
successful.
[Illustration: THE PRADO MANSION HOUSE, SÃO PAULO.]
A succession of large crops, both in Brazil and other producing
countries of the world, would mean real disaster to São Paulo, but
experience goes to show that irregular crops are the general rule, and
that full years are inevitably followed by lean ones.
The only developments that the State of São Paulo has had to watch
carefully are the increasing outputs of newer plantations in Mexico, the
West Indies, and the northern republics of South America, all of which
are gradually increasing the area under coffee cultivation. São Paulo
alone could produce all the coffee necessary to meet the world’s demand,
were all her available land allowed to be placed under cultivation, so
that the policy of restriction is almost forced upon her. The rapid
development of this State is one of the outstanding features of South
America, and is all the more remarkable when one considers the
comparatively short time that has elapsed since its staple industry was
first commenced.