File:Tropical agriculture; the climate, soils, cultural methods, crops, live stock, commercial importance and opportunities of the tropics (1916) (14583264028).jpg

Identifier: tropicalagricult00wilc (find matches)
Title: Tropical agriculture; the climate, soils, cultural methods, crops, live stock, commercial importance and opportunities of the tropics
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Wilcox, Earley Vernon, 1869-
Subjects: Agriculture
Publisher: New York, London, D. Appleton and Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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atic countries than in Brazil.The full mature crop does not occur until about 7 to 10years. Under ordinary conditions the limit of profitable bear-ing age of coffee is about 30 years. The yield varies enor-mously in different countries and in different localities. Underfavorable conditions the yield of dried coffee per acre rangesfrom 500 to 1,200 pounds. It may ordinarily be consideredthat I to 13^ pounds of dry coffee per tree is a satisfactoryyield. The crimson fruit of the coffee is known as the coffee cherryand the seed as the coffee berry. From a botanical standpointthe fruit itself is a berry, but the trade names cherry andberry have become very firmly established and are so generallywell known that there seems little reason for attempting tochange the terminology. The cherries are pulped as soon asthey are brought in from the field by the pickers. Numerousimprovements have been made since the days of hand-pulping,until at present very efficient pulping machines are in use on (
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■^fc^Ur^V*.. Coffee Tree in Bloom in Costa Rica BEVERAGES 67 all coffee plantations. The mucilaginous material left aroundthe berries after the removal of the pulp is in turn removedby fermentation or soaking in water for a few hours. Theberries are then dried in the parchment. The term parchmentis applied to the tough, leathery skin surrounding the coffeeberry. Inside of the tough parchment is a very thin, filmylayer of tissue closely adhering to the coffee berry and knownas the silver skin. The parchment and silver skin are re-moved by coffee hulling machines and the berries are thenthoroughly cleaned by winnowing. Coffee may be handledand sold either in the parchment or after hulling. For themost part, however, coffee is hulled before being shipped forthe reason that hulling removes some of the useless materialand makes a saving in freight. In the process of roasting, coffee loses from 15 to 20 percent, in weight and gains from 30 to 50 per cent, in bulk ac-cording to the degree

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