COFFEE TRADE

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 February 1939, Page 2

COFFEE TRADE

WORK ON PLANTATION. GUATEMALA CITY, December 30. Anyone coming to this country should see a coffee plantation and learn how this favourite beverage is produced. The first step on an. unimproved plantation is to clear the land. Such trees of. different tropical species as are suitable for shade, usually about fifty feet high, are, left standing. Additional shade trees then are added to

form a checked plot, .'with trees in twenty-five feet squares. • fn this prepared plot, an additional checkerboard arrangement of holes two feet deep and two feet in diameter is laid out in squares with sides of twelve feet. The holes are large enough, to give tile coffee, plant sufficient loose earth to prosper. The beginning of the; coffee culture proper is similar to that of tobacco and tomatoes, that is. the seeds are thickly sown in carefully beds. The seeds sprout in about forty days, showing two small leaves.

The plants then are transferred to i the nursery plots in rows about a foot apart. During two years in the nursery, the plants grow about two feet. Then they are ready for transplanting into holes as described above. When the roots take hold firmly in their new location, the young trees arc bent over and clamped to the ground by forked pins. This breaks the skin or hark some eight or ten inches from the ground. From these breaks many little sprouts shoot upward. As soon as the healthy ones can bo distinguished, they are pruned down to four. This process nialo-s for busily trees.

About, five years later, the trees arcready to produce. All soil maintenance is by hand, with hoes and machetes. Ploughs are taboo, because they aid soil erosion. Tlte- coffee bean when ripe is red. and if ot good grade half an inch in diameter. The trees resemble cherry trees in good seasons. fho berries are hand picked hv men with baskets strapped around’ iheir waists. This phase is piece- work, at so much per 1001 b picked. The harvest begins in November, and lasts through io February. There is one crop per year.

PULPING OF BERRIES. From the picker's basket to a. tank of water is the next stop. Thon the berries go directly to the pulping machine which knocks off rhe outer skin, leaving’ a slippery jelly bean which goi s H-, rough :t fermenting process lasting from thirty-six to sixty hours, according to climate. The 1 time necessary can be determined by the feel of tile bean.

From the fermenting tank to the washing tank is the next step. In I lie la 11 er basin, i lie first sorting. ' lakes pl,•ti e. Tlio good beans sink’ and lite bad ones float. Tile heavy or submerged ones Ilion are sent to a rotary drying machine for thirty hours, after which the product is icady for lite husking machine, which knocks off ihe shell. freeing lite green culTec beans. Another trip through a revolving cylinder is needed to bring out the oil mid polisli the grain, which raises tin? price. 11. is now ready for the

stick, the boat, and the auctioneer's hammer. Tito roasting is done at the consumer’s end. The coffee is sacked in bags of 1501 b for the market.