All About Coffee Part 27

_Coffea arabica_ is a shrub with evergreen leaves, and reaches a height of fourteen to twenty feet when fully grown. The shrub produces dimorphic branches, _i.e._, branches of two forms, known as uprights and laterals. When young, the plants have a main stem, the upright, which, however, eventually sends out side shoots, the laterals. The laterals may send out other laterals, known as secondary laterals; but no lateral can ever produce an upright. The laterals are produced in pairs and are opposite, the pairs being borne in whorls around the stem. The laterals are produced only while the joint of the upright, to which they are attached, is young; and if they are broken off at that point, the upright has no power to reproduce them. The upright can produce new uprights also; but if an upright is cut off, the laterals at that position tend to thicken up. This is very desirable, as the laterals produce the flowers, which seldom appear on the uprights. This fact is utilized in pruning the coffee tree, the uprights being cut back, the laterals then becoming more productive. Planters generally keep their trees pruned down to about six feet.

The leaves are lanceolate, or lance-shaped, being borne in pairs opposite each other. They are three to six inches in length, with an ac.u.minate apex, somewhat attenuate at the base, with very short petioles which are united with the short interpetiolar stipules at the base. The coffee leaves are thin, but of firm texture, slightly coriaceous. They are very dark green on the upper surface, but much lighter underneath.

The margin of the leaf is entire and wavy. In some tropical countries the natives brew a coffee tea from the leaves of the coffee tree.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRAZIL COFFEE PLANTATION IN FLOWER]

The coffee flowers are small, white, and very fragrant, having a delicate characteristic odor. They are borne in the axils of the leaves in cl.u.s.ters, and several crops are produced in one season, depending on the conditions of heat and moisture that prevail in the particular season. The different blossomings are cla.s.sed as main blossoming and smaller blossomings. In semi-dry high districts, as in Costa Rica or Guatemala, there is one blossoming season, about March, and flowers and fruit are not found together, as a rule, on the trees. But in lowland plantations where rain is perennial, blooming and fruiting continue practically all the year; and ripe fruits, green fruits, open flowers, and flower buds are to be found at the same time on the same branchlet, not mixed together, but in the order indicated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEA ARABICA--PORTO RICO]

The flowers are also tubular, the tube of the corolla dividing into five white segments. Dr. P.J.S. Cramer, chief of the division of plant breeding, Department of Agriculture, Netherlands India, says the number of petals is not at all constant, not even for flowers of the same tree.

The corolla segments are about one-half inch in length, while the tube itself is about three-eighths of an inch long. The anthers of the stamens, which are five in number, protrude from the top of the corolla tube, together with the top of the two-cleft pistil. The calyx, which is so small as to escape notice unless one is aware of its existence, is annular, with small, tooth-like indentations.

While the usual color of the coffee flower is white, the fresh stamens and pistils may have a greenish tinge, and in some cultivated species the corolla is pale pink.

The size and condition of the flowers are entirely dependent on the weather. The flowers are sometimes very small, very fragrant, and very numerous; while at other times, when the weather is not hot and dry, they are very large, but not so numerous. Both sets of flowers mentioned above "set fruit," as it is called; but at times, especially in a very dry season, they bear flowers that are few in number, small, and imperfectly formed, the petals frequently being green instead of white.

These flowers do not set fruit. The flowers that open on a dry sunny day show a greater yield of fruit than those that open on a wet day, as the first mentioned have a better chance of being pollinated by the insects and the wind. The beauty of a coffee estate in flower is of a very fleeting character. One day it is a snowy expanse of fragrant white blossoms for miles and miles, as far as the eye can see, and two days later it reminds one of the lines from Villon's _Des Dames du Temps Jadis_.

Where are the snows of yesterday?

The winter winds have blown them all away.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEA ARABICA, FLOWER AND FRUIT--COSTA RICA]

But here, the winter winds are not to blame: the soft, gentle breezes of the perpetual summer have wrought the havoc, leaving, however, a not unpleasing picture of dark, cool, mossy green foliage.

The flowers are beautiful, but the eye of the planter sees in them not alone beauty and fragrance. He looks far beyond, and in his mind's eye he sees bags and bags of green coffee, representing to him the goal and reward of all his toil. After the flowers droop, there appear what are commercially known as the coffee berries. Botanically speaking, "berry"

is a misnomer. These little fruits are not berries, such as are well represented by the grape; but are drupes, which are better exemplified by the cherry and the peach. In the course of six or seven months, these coffee drupes develop into little red b.a.l.l.s about the size of an ordinary cherry; but, instead of being round, they are somewhat ellipsoidal, having at the outer end a small umbilicus. The drupe of the coffee usually has two locules, each containing a little "stone" (the seed and its parchment covering) from which the coffee bean (seed) is obtained. Some few drupes contain three, while others, at the outer ends of the branches, contain only one round bean, known as the peaberry. The number of pickings corresponds to the different blossomings in the same season; and one tree of the species _arabica_ may yield from one to twelve pounds a year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: YOUNG COFFEA ARABICA TREE AT KONA, HAWAII]

In countries like India and Africa, the birds and monkeys eat the ripe coffee berries. The so-called "monkey coffee" of India, according to Arnold, is the undigested coffee beans pa.s.sed through the alimentary ca.n.a.l of the animal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SURVIVORS OF THE FIRST LIBERIAN COFFEE TREES INTRODUCED INTO JAVA IN 1876]

The pulp surrounding the coffee beans is at present of no commercial importance. Although efforts have been made at various times by natives to use it as a food, its flavor has not gained any great popularity, and the birds are permitted a monopoly of the pulp as a food. From the human standpoint the pulp, or sarcocarp, as it is scientifically called, is rather an annoyance, as it must be removed in order to procure the beans. This is done in one of two ways. The first is known as the dry method, in which the entire fruit is allowed to dry, and is then cracked open. The second way is called the wet method; the sarcocarp is removed by machine, and two wet, slimy seed packets are obtained. These packets, which look for all the world like seeds, are allowed to dry in such a way that fermentation takes place. This rids them of all the slime; and, after they are thoroughly dry, the endocarp, the so-called parchment covering, is easily cracked open and removed. At the same time that the parchment is removed, a thin silvery membrane, the silver skin, beneath the parchment, comes off, too. There are always small fragments of this silver skin to be found in the groove of the coffee bean contained within the parchment packet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEA ARABICA IN FLOWER ON A JAVA ESTATE

From a photograph made at Dramaga, Preanger, Java, in 1907]

[Ill.u.s.tration: LIBERIAN COFFEE TREE AT LAMOA, P.I.]

We have said that the coffee tree yields from one to twelve pounds a year, but of course this varies with the individual tree and also with the region. In some countries the whole year's yield is less than 200 pounds per acre, while there is on record a patch in Brazil which yields about seventeen pounds to the tree, bringing the yield per acre much higher.

The beans do not retain their vitality for planting for any considerable length of time; and, if they are thoroughly dried, or are kept for longer than three or four months, they are useless for that purpose. It takes the seed about six weeks to germinate and to appear above ground.

Trees raised from seed begin to blossom in about three years; but a good crop can not be expected of them for the first five or six years. Their usefulness, save in exceptional cases, is ended in about thirty years.

The coffee tree can be propagated in a way other than by seeds. The upright branches can be used as slips, which, after taking root, will produce seed-bearing laterals. The laterals themselves can not be used as slips. In Central America the natives sometimes use coffee uprights for fences and it is no uncommon sight to see the fence posts "growing."

The wood of the coffee tree is used also for cabinet work, as it is much stronger than many of the native woods, weighing about forty-three pounds to the cubic foot, having a crus.h.i.+ng strength of 5,800 pounds per square inch, and a breaking strength of 10,900 pounds per square inch.

The propagation of the coffee plant by cutting has two distinct advantages over propagation by seed, in that it spares the expense of seed production, which is enormous, and it gives also a method of hybridization, which, if used, might lead not only to very interesting but also to very profitable results.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TWO-AND-ONE-HALF-YEAR-OLD C. CONGENSIS]

The hybridization of the coffee plant was taken up in a thoroughly scientific manner by the Dutch government at the experimental garden established at Bangelan, Java, in 1900. In his studies, twelve varieties of _Coffea arabica_ are recognized by Dr. P.J.S. Cramer[95], namely:

_Laurina_, a hybrid of _Coffea arabica_ with C. _mauritiana_, having small narrow leaves, stiff, dense branches, young leaves almost white, berry long and narrow, and beans narrow and oblong.

_Murta_, having small leaves, dense branches, beans as in the typical _Coffea arabica_, and the plant able to stand bitter cold.

_Menosperma_, a distinct type, with narrow leaves and bent-down branches resembling a willow, the berries seldom containing more than one seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A HEAVY FLOWERING OF FIVE-YEAR-OLD COFFEA EXCELSA

This is a comparatively new species, discovered in the Tchad Lake district of West Africa in 1905. It is a small-beaned variety of _Coffea liberica_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRANCHES OF COFFEA EXCELSA GROWN AT THE LAMAO EXPERIMENT STATION, P.I.]

_Mokka_ (_Coffea Mokkae_), having small leaves, dense foliage, small round berries, small round beans resembling split peas, and possessed of a stronger flavor than _Coffea arabica_.

_Purpurescens_, a red-leaved variety, comparable with the red-leaved hazel and copper beech, a little less productive than the _Coffea arabica_.

_Variegata_, having variegated leaves striped and spotted with white.

_Amarella_, having yellow berries, comparable with the white-fruited variety of the strawberry, raspberry, etc.

_Bullata_, having broad, curled leaves; stiff, thick, fragile branches, and round, fleshy berries containing a high percentage of empty beans.

_Angustifolia_, a narrow-leaved variety, with berries somewhat more oblong and, like the foregoing, a poor producer.

_Erecta_, a variety that is st.u.r.dier than the typical _arabica_, better suited to windy places, and having a production as in the common _arabica_.

_Maragogipe_, a well-defined variety with light green leaves having colored edges: berries large, broad, sometimes narrower in the middle; a light bearer, the whole crop sometimes being reduced to a couple of berries per tree.[96]

[Ill.u.s.tration: C. STENOPHYLLA, FROM WHICH IS OBTAINED THE HIGHLAND COFFEE OF SIERRA LEONE]

_Columnaris_, a vigorous variety, sometimes reaching a height of 25 feet, having leaves rounded at the base and rather broad, but a shy bearer, recommended for dry climates.

_Coffea Stenophylla_

_Coffea arabica_ has a formidable rival in the species _stenophylla_.

The flavor of this variety is p.r.o.nounced by some as surpa.s.sing that of _arabica_. The great disadvantage of this plant is the fact that it requires so long a time before a yield of any value can be secured.

Although the time required for the maturing of the crop is so long, when once the plantation begins to yield, the crop is as large as that of _Coffea arabica_, and occasionally somewhat larger. The leaves are smaller than any of the species described, and the flowers bear their parts in numbers varying from six to nine. The tree is a native of Sierra Leone, where it grows wild.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright, 1909, by The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal

NEAR VIEW OF COFFEE BERRIES OF COFFEA ARABICA]