The commercial value depends on the size, form, and colour of the beans, and their flavour. Apart from tasting, which should always be done when practicable, one of the best and most simple tests by which the merits of coffee may be approxi mately arrived at, is the amount of aroina which arises when tho berries are freshly ground. In the better qualities the bean will grind with a dark appearance. In some kinds, especially those of tho Mysore and Peninsular growths, the berries when roasted are perfect, owing, in a great measure, to their hardness and thickness when in a raw state, which would account for their resisting tho application of heat better than the less bulky berry of Plantation Ceylon. .Mocha, on the contrary, not only presents a most ragged appearance after it has undergone the proce&R of roa.sting, but often exhibits many different shades of colour.
Coffee is one of those articles of which, though the inferior qualities may be unsaleable in Europe, a superior sample will always meet with purchasers about its real value, as it is consumed by a cla-Rs who will have it, and who consequently must pay for it as a luxury. In 1847 and 1848, although Ceylon plantation ' was sold from 35s. to 50s. per cwt. as a general price, a few samples from the highest estates brought 85s. and 92s.
The Abyssinian coffee berry, also excellent, is inferior in qualities to that of Yemen; it is larger. The Indian berry ranks next. In Arabia the picked berries aro roasted in a ladle until they crackle, redden, and smoke a little, and aro care fully withdrawn from the beat long before they are black or charred, and are then put to cool on a glass platter. They are then bruised (not powdered) in mortars, poured int,o hot water, and boiled gently and not long, all the time stirring with a stick ; add when boiling a few aromatic seeds, Ileyl,' and a little saffron and cloves. The liquor is then strained.
fit Ceylon and Southern India, mechanical con trivances have been largely applied in the process of preparing the coffee bean for the market. Amongst others, Mr. Clerihew's fanners and Greig's pea-berry machine may be mentioned.
Manure.—The returns obtained from manured plantations have been richly repaid by a high standard of bearing. Cattle manuring is the most generally available. A good manure Is found in the decayed leaves that fall from the trees them selves, to which may be added the weeds produced in the plantation, dried and burnt. These, dug
in, are always useful as a manure, and should be utilized. Cow-dung is the best manure for the seed-beds. The pulps of the coffee can be added to the fertilizing mass ; indeed, rotting wood, weeds, burned dolomite, and anything which will produce ammonia, should be taken care of. But it has been supposed that 'natty of the coffee plant enemies, fungi and insects, are germinated in the decaying manure. The manuriug of a. whole estate- at one time is seldom required, but every part of the plantation should be brought under its operation every second or third year. One Ceylon estate, which was wholly manured without limit ftS to expense, is said to have returned about 20 cwt. to the acre ; lime, cattle manure, and mould from the neigh bouring forest were. used in a compost, and the soil turned up everywhere round the plant to apply it (Coffee Planting in Ceylon p. 52). The richest mould cannot yield crop after crop for years, unless a proportionate return be made to it. The plant and its fruits are differently composed, and it is more necessary to provide for the truit than the stem which supports it. A large proportion of the bean is nitrogen, which science teaches may be produced by certain phosphates, etc., under particular circumstances. A chetnist can in a few .days and at trifling cost produce what the uninitiated -might spend a lifetime and a fortune over without attaining.
About 1849, Mr: Herepath gave the following analysis of 150 grains of fine ‘Vest India coffee berries, for the purpose of determining the best manure for the West India coffee estates. Deduct ing the carbonic acid, 100 grains of ash gave,— phosphate of lime, 45'551 ; phosphoric acid, 12-801 ; potash, 16-512 ; soda, 6-787 ; magnesia, 5'942 ; lime, 2.329 ; sulphate of lime, 1-751 ; with small quantities of sulphuric acid, chloride of sodium, and silicic acid.
In searching for a manure, where bone-dust, cow-dung, and wood ashes can be cheaply pro cured and applied, nothing can be bett\er,i a little powdered gneiss might be an improvement. Failing bone-dust and cow-dung, recoursemust be had to amtnoniacal manures, such as guano, and to lime. The dolomite of the interior of Ceylon contains, aceording to Dr. Gygax, the proper proportion of phosphoric acid, in the shape of apatite or phosphate of lime. Dolomite is plentiful in Southern India.