File:Brazil, the Amazons and the coast (1879) (14596722779).jpg

Identifier: brazilamazonscoa00smit (find matches)
Title: Brazil, the Amazons and the coast
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Smith, Herbert H. (Herbert Huntington), 1851-1919
Subjects: Folklore -- Brazil Brazil -- Description and travel Brazil -- Economic conditions Amazon River Valley -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: Brown University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brown University

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The Pulping-machine. terreiro is picturesque with moving figures of slaves em-ployed in this work; for the rest, it is unpicturesque enough,like everything else about a coffee-plantation, except thenegroes. But Sr. S., ever ready to seize modern improvements,is adopting the new system of drying by steam. Back ofthe house there is a long, low building, which one is loath THE STORY OF COFFEE. 521 to enter, for the air within is sweltering ; a Hght vaporfloats about the roof, and is carried away through openingsunder the eaves. We see rows of great, zinc-covered tables,with raised edges. Little clouds come from the dryingcoffee on these tables ; one or two negroes move about,stirring; the seeds here and there, and removing them asthey are dried. This steam-process is likely to upset theold system entirely, for by it 1
Text Appearing After Image:
Steam Drylng-machine. the coffee is dried thoroughly in a few hours, and the longdelay of the terreiro is done away with, while the product ismuch improved in quality. Against the expense of the dry-ing-machine, which is not very great, is set the absolute sav-ing of labor ; three, or at most four workmen, will attend totwenty tables : quite enough for the largest plantation. Thecoffee runs no danger of injury by rains, and, the process 522 BRAZIL. being a constant and rapid one, there is no accumulation ofhalf-prepared seeds. The coffee-grains are still enclosed in their inner andouter shells, which are now dry and somewhat brittle. Theremoval of these is effected by a much more complicated andexpensive process. The first impression produced by ourhosts mill-house is one of utter confusion. It is a large,substantial building, such as might do for a flouring-mill inthe United States. The floor, and two galleries above it,are occupied by a series of complicated mechanisms, someof them

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