COFFEE
Brazil is not only the land where the nuts come from, but it is also
the land where the world’s coffee comes from as well. Two-thirds, and
possibly three-fourths, of all the coffee used in the world is produced
by this one great country. It matters little whether your grocer labels
your coffee Mocha, Java, or any other name, it is a pretty safe guess
to say that it was raised in Brazil. Richer than gold have proven the
stretches of red soil where this berry grows. This soil occurs at
intervals from the state of Pernambuco south almost to Rio Grande do Sul,
the southernmost state. Of Brazil’s production three-fourths or more is
grown in the state of São Paulo, thus making the production of this one
state alone more than half of the world’s production. Considering the
enormous quantity of coffee consumed, this product and its cultivation in
Brazil becomes of world-wide interest.
The name coffee is derived from Kaffa, a town in Arabia, where it was
first grown. Coffee began to be introduced into Europe in the fifteenth
century, where coffee houses were established and soon became very
popular. In Turkey and England they later came under royal displeasure;
in the former country, because the seduction of the beverage kept the
people from the services of the mosque, and caused them to ignore the
hours for prayer; in the latter, because the coffee houses were believed
to be places of sedition, and disloyalty to the crown. In spite of royal
displeasure and the restrictions of the government, however, the use of
the coffee beverage continually grew, and the restrictive measures seemed
to have little effect on its use.
About the middle of the eighteenth century the cultivation was introduced
into the New World, in Guatemala, Mexico, the West Indies and Brazil.
In the latter country it is said to have been introduced about 1761, by
a deserter who came to that country and brought with him a few seeds.
Its cultivation was, however, on a very small scale for a number of
decades, but was gradually introduced into a number of states where it
was found adapted to the soil. It was not until early in the nineteenth
century that the cultivation of this plant on a large scale was begun at
Campinas, and within a few years the production had reached an important
figure. In the first year of that century it is said that two bags were
sent to foreign markets from Brazil. A dozen years later the shipment
of bags was numbered by the thousands, until, in 1817, the exports are
reported to have been in excess of sixty thousand bags. The state of
São Paulo from the very first took the lead in production of coffee, as
the soil of that state seemed especially adapted to its cultivation. In
this state alone, at the present time, it is estimated that there are
nearly seven hundred millions of trees, and the annual production will
average more than ten million sacks, or one billion three hundred and
twenty million pounds of this berry. These figures will not be materially
altered for several years, because of the restrictive legislation
prohibiting the planting of new trees, which will be explained more in
detail later.
Successful cultivation of coffee, like that of almost any other valuable
crop, requires certain conditions of soil and climate. These are a
rich earth, a certain rarefication of air and plenty of moisture. The
_terra roxa_ (red earth) of Brazil is very rich, and is the result of
the decomposition of rocks of basaltic origin. The best lands are at an
altitude of one thousand five hundred feet, or more, above sea level and
require eighty inches or more of annual rainfall. Furthermore, hilly
lands with an eastern exposure are generally chosen. Although plantations
are sometimes found on comparatively level ground. Too much or too little
moisture, or a frost, will spoil a season’s crop. A coffee field, with
its trees laid out in regular rows stretching as far as the eye can see
to the top of the hills in either direction, is a beautiful sight. In the
foreground the rows of trees, with the roads at regular intervals and
the contrast of green against the red soil, are plainly visible; but, as
distance increases, they blend together until the whole seems a field of
living green, gently swaying in the breeze. Like a great panorama these
fields spread out in every direction in the neighbourhood of Riberão
Preto, the centre of the richest coffee district.
Coffee trees are a matter of slow growth, requiring at least four years
to mature after the young plants are set out. The seed is always planted
in the woods, where patches are cleared for that purpose, and where the
necessary shade and moisture are found. They are always transplanted
during the rainy season, when about eighteen months old and perhaps
a foot high, and during this work the tender plants are handled very
carefully. In many countries the young trees are shaded by banana stalks,
but that method is not followed in Brazil. Corn is oftentimes planted
between the rows of coffee trees to bring an extra crop, but this method
is not approved by the best planters, as coffee trees exhaust the soil
rapidly enough by themselves. On some of the old _fazendas_ the plants
are set in rows not more than eight or ten feet apart, but the newer
plantations are at a distance of from twelve to fifteen feet. The trees
are carefully pruned, and the ground weeded each year, and a crop will
be produced about the fifth year after planting. If the trees are left
to grow untrimmed they will reach a height of eighteen or twenty feet,
but they are usually kept down to a height of about twelve feet, or
less, and are not allowed to spread out too much. One quickly learns
to distinguish between a well-kept and a poorly-cultivated coffee
plantation by its trimmed or untrimmed appearance. The growth of weeds is
sometimes allowed, especially on hillsides, as the roots of the weeds
prevent the soil from washing during the tropical downpours. Otherwise
the rich surface dirt will disappear down into the valleys below. A
planter’s credit was at one time determined by the number of trees he
owned, and that was the reason that some of the fields were planted so
closely together. It has been proven, however, by experience, that close
planting does not pay. One of the most successful planters told me that
even the wagon roads, which are left at intervals of perhaps five hundred
feet, were not a loss, for the trees on each side produced so much more
abundantly that they made up for the row or two of trees left out for the
road.
The coffee tree is an evergreen, and usually has a single trunk with
many branches. The leaves are long, smooth and dark green in appearance.
They are almost a shiny green like the holly, and look as though they
had been varnished. The blossoms grow in great abundance in the axils of
the branches, and a field in blossom is most entrancing. In the early
morning, after a refreshing shower, or while the dew still lingers, the
fields with their small, white blossoms are not only a beautiful sight to
the eye, but an aroma arises from them that fills the air with a sweet
perfume. The fruit usually grows in clusters of from a half dozen to a
dozen berries, which surround the joints almost like a necklace just over
the leaves. When ripe, the coffee berries resemble very much a cranberry
of medium size. Then the coffee field is again a pretty picture, for the
white flowers have turned into beautiful red berries, and the bushes
resemble richly loaded cherry trees. The tree will produce abundant crops
after the sixth year, and I saw fields that were at least thirty-five
years old, and still bearing profitable crops. It is said that the coffee
trees will produce as long as the life of man. There are two kinds
of trees cultivated in Brazil: the common and the yellow-berried, or
Botucatu, and generally called the Bourbon. The yellow-berried variety
develops more rapidly, and gives more abundant crops, but its cultivation
is more difficult. This latter is the one most generally cultivated at
the present time, but it brings a lower price because it is said to be
inferior to the other in aromatic qualities and the weight of the grain.
Its introduction came about when the price was very high and every
planter was anxious to obtain as great a production as possible.
The coffee trees begin to blossom in September and continue to bloom
for several weeks. The maturing process is also irregular, and covers
a period of a couple of months. It requires a number of months for the
berries to mature, and in the state of São Paulo, for instance, the first
picking does not take place until the last of May or first of June. From
that time on the plantations are scenes of activity for five or six
months, until the last of the crop is dispatched to the commission houses
in Santos. The fields will then be filled with men, women and children
with their baskets, gathering up the precious fruit, ready to be taken to
the drying yards.
At harvesting time thousands of pickers flock to the coffee regions from
other parts of Brazil, as they are able to earn good wages for a few
weeks. Many whole families will travel for days on foot, when they have
not enough money to pay their railroad fares. There is often considerable
rivalry among the pickers to see who can pick the most; but there is
also the further incentive to rapid work in the fact that all wages are
paid at so much for a fixed quantity. Fifty pounds is considered a good
day’s picking when it is done from the trees. The method in general
operation on the large _fazendas_ is to strip the branches of all their
coffee berries, by pulling them between the fingers, and then others
follow up and pick up the berries, leaves, etc., from the ground, or the
sheets which have been spread out to catch them. In this way only one
picking is made even though some of the berries have become overripe, and
others are green owing to the uneven ripening. This causes a considerable
unavoidable loss. In an extraordinary season a tree may produce as much
as seven pounds of coffee, but a fair average is three pounds per tree.
[Illustration: DRYING COFFEE.]
The gathering and preparation of the berries is a difficult and laborious
operation involving a number of processes. The large plantations are
equipped with all the necessary paved yards and machinery for this
work, and the smaller planters send theirs to central factories, or
_beneficios_, as they are called. The coffee must be washed, pulped,
dried and submitted to several stages of preparation. The washing is a
simple process, but the work of drying requires the greatest care, for
it exercises a great influence on the value of the coffee. There are at
least two distinct processes in the preparation of the coffee, but it is
always first washed and then soaked in order to soften the pulp, so that
it can be removed, for the coffee beans are in the centre. This “pulping”
is done by a revolving cylinder set with teeth, after which the beans are
run into tanks for a thorough washing to remove all traces of the pulp.
Some have a series of these tanks through which the coffee is passed,
and the beans are then carried by means of running water out through the
paving yards. On these great yards of beaten earth, paved with bricks or
cemented, and sometimes tarred (for they dry quicker on a tarred floor),
the berries are spread out in thin layers to dry. If you would take up
a handful at this time you would find they were covered with a soft
gummy substance. No artificial drying process equals that of the sun’s
rays. Men with wooden rakes, and in their bare feet, are kept constantly
busy turning over the berries to hasten this process, which oftentimes
requires many days, and even weeks, for it is necessary that they be
evenly dried.
You probably expect to see a green berry or bean at this time but they
are still covered with a parchment-like skin. When they are finally
dried this parchment skin is removed by passing the beans through
heavy rollers, and the chaff is cleared away by machine work similar
to that used for similar processes in wheat threshing and cleaning. By
a continuous process the beans are passed through machines which husk,
fan, polish and sort them according to sizes. The berries are now a light
olive-green colour. The little round beans are classed as “Mocha” and
another size as “Java,” etc. The various grades are then sacked in coarse
sacks, labelled with the name of the _fazenda_ and the grade, and shipped
to Rio de Janeiro, or Santos, where the great commission houses are
located.
The commission houses are important institutions and practically own many
of the _fazendas_ through advance loans, and the planter is helpless
against charges that are oftentimes excessive. In the warehouses the
coffee is all emptied out in great piles, and repacked in new sacks,
often being regraded by the commissionaires. The planter is burdened with
a great number of expenses. The net price to him the past year was only a
little over four cents per pound. Among these expenses the following is a
fair list as taken from an official publication, and verified to me by a
leading planter: transportation to the railroad station, transportation
to Santos, municipal export tax, resacking charges, shipping old sacks
back, brokers’ commission (should be three per cent., but is in fact much
higher), a special tax of $1.00 per sack and an _ad valorem_ export tax
of nine per cent., and a number of other minor charges. In the end it is
the commission man who has the smallest amount of work and least risk,
who makes the big money at the present price of coffee. It used to be
when the planter received ten to twelve cents per pound for his coffee
that the _fazendero_ rolled in wealth, and no extravagance or luxury was
beyond him. At the present time only those who have the latest improved
machinery, so that the cost of preparation is reduced to a minimum,
are making much money. A rise or fall of a cent per pound often means
prosperity to the coffee producer or the reverse. The price to-day is not
more than one-third of what it was a number of years ago. It is probably
quite possible to simplify the cultivation of coffee trees so that there
would be a considerable margin of profit at the present prices. One
progressive planter looks after forty thousand trees with one man, four
mules and two machines of a recent pattern, according to a report that I
saw.
The steady decrease in the price of coffee during several years led to a
new departure in economics, by the three great coffee producing states
of Brazil. A sack of coffee (one hundred and thirty-two pounds), which
in 1895 was worth almost $20.00 in Europe, had fallen to $8.00 in 1905.
The coffee planters were almost in despair over this low price, which
threatened to spell ruin for many of them within a short time. Among
themselves they had attempted various measures, but all of them had
failed. An attempt had been made as early as 1901, by the state of São
Paulo, to remedy this situation, by a practically prohibitive tax upon
new plantations, allowing each planter to set out each year only five per
cent. of what he already possessed. This would not much more than replace
the natural decay. This order was originally made for a period of five
years, but has since been continued for another period of the same length.
This measure failed to bring about the desired result. Finally, when the
crop of 1906-7 promised to be such an unusual crop, the planters appealed
to the government for further relief. The state was equally interested,
since by far the greatest part of the revenue of the state, and the
various municipalities as well, is derived from its tax upon coffee,
and they were afraid that the planters would become panicky and abandon
coffee cultivation. Because of this alarm the governments of the three
states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Geraes and São Paulo entered into an
agreement, known as the Taubaté Agreement, by which these states, acting
through São Paulo, agreed to buy up on the market the surplus production
and store it until such time as, in the judgment of the commissioners,
conditions warranted its sale.
This judgment was based upon the observation that coffee trees exhaust
themselves by such an extraordinary crop, and yield only average crops
for the next two or three years. They figured that by that time the
natural increase in the consumption would give a market for this coffee.
Further, it was known that coffee improves, rather than deteriorates,
with age. A special export tax of $0.60 to $1.00 per sack was established
at the ports of Rio and Santos, and the government of São Paulo was
authorized to borrow not to exceed $45,000,000 to raise a fund to
purchase the coffee, each of the three states jointly binding themselves
in the obligation. As a result of this agreement that state purchased
eight million sacks of coffee in the market, and these were stored in a
number of central points in Europe, as well as in New York. Money was
borrowed at comparatively high rates. Both the state obligation was given
and the stored coffee pledged as collateral security. At that time it
was estimated that there would be, including the new crop, a surplus
stock of fourteen million sacks of coffee, representing almost one year’s
consumption.
The result of this action of the coffee producing states has not been
what was expected. The price has not increased as was predicted, and
the interest and other expenses have been a great drain upon revenues.
Another part of the scheme was to limit the exportations from the
country; nine million sacks being fixed for the year 1908, nine million
five hundred thousand for the year 1909, and ten million for the
following years. All coffee exported above that amount would be subject
to an additional tax which made it prohibitive. Furthermore, the crops
were rather larger than was expected, so that the surplus stock had not
appreciatively decreased. In the winter of 1909-10, the time of my
visit, there was a movement on foot, which gained a great many adherents,
to arbitrarily destroy ten per cent. of the previous season’s crop, but
this was not done. Within four months after the new crop came in, the
limit allowed for export had been reached, and the export trade was at
a standstill. It was a new attempt to get around the law of supply and
demand. The final result of this attempt is as yet problematical, and
remains to be seen. It was a bold and original effort that has many
defenders, and many critics as well, right among the Brazilian people.
If not the best, the Brazilians make one of the best cups of coffee in
the world. Never have I tasted such delicious coffee as I did almost all
over that republic. The Brazilians understand fully the art of preparing
this delicious beverage, and make it fit for kings and queens. They
generally choose a coffee berry at least two years old, as they say that
age improves the aroma. Some even say that five or six years’ storage in
a dry place is still better. Another essential, they say, is to roast and
grind the coffee fresh every day. The roasting process is very thorough,
for it is roasted until the average American housewife would call it
burned. The black roasted coffee is reduced to a fine powder, and then
placed in a woollen bag through which hot water is poured. It is _never_
allowed to boil, so that their coffee is rather a percolation than an
extraction. I am not a cook, but I do know that the coffee as prepared
by the Brazilians is delicious, and seems to be free from the harmful
effects. In the morning it is served in about equal proportions with hot
milk, but at all other times clear. Little dainty cups of black coffee
with plenty of damp sugar are always served at social calls, at nearly
all public offices and in many other places where one visits. In fact, if
you called on a Brazilian family, and coffee or some other refreshment
were not served, you would almost be justified in believing that your
call was not especially welcome. I drank coffee many times, and at all
hours, when offered, and often feared the consequences, but never felt
the slightest ill effect.