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Young Plant Of Arabian Coffee

tation. The seeds are prepared for use by roasting in revolving metal cylinders, then bruising them to loosen the skins, which are removed by fanning. The cotyledons, commonly called cacao-nibs, are separated and crushed and ground between heated rollers, which softens the oily matter, and reduces them to a uniform, pasty mass; this is then mixed with variable quantities of sugar and starch, to form the different kinds of cacao, or sweetened and flavored with vanilla or other substances for the formation of chocolate.

X. Coffee.

COFFEE and tea are articles of almost universal consumption among civilized peoples. Coffee is strictly an inter-tropical plant, and is scarcely hardy even in the warmest portions of Florida and California. The principal countries producing coffee are the West Indies, Central America and Brazil. The grades of so-called Mocha, Java, etc., are mostly produced in the localities above named from seed originally imported. Since the export from Oriental countries is comparatively insignificant, Brazil is the great coffee-producing country of the globe. Coffee owes its flavor both to the nature of the plants and to the soil upon which it grows. In this respect it is like tobacco, the peculiarity of soil and climate giving it flavor. The chief requirements of a coffee plantation are constant heat, and protection from the direct rays of the sun.

XI. Tea.

TEA is indigenous to the sub-tropical regions of China. It has been extensively naturalized in other countries, and will survive the winters in the United States as far north as Virginia. Its native country is not known, but Assam is the only country where it is found growing wild. It is injured by long sea voyages, even when the greatest care is observed, and hence, since the route to China and the other Oriental tea-producing countries has been opened by the railways to the Pacific, the fragrance is better preserved than heretofore, since the water voyage is materially lessened in point of time. Russia is said to receive the finest tea, outside of China, it being brought overland. In every part of the South where the shrub is hardy, sufficient should be produced for home consumption. The cost of labor in its preparation alone prevents its successful cultivation in the hill regions of the South.

XII. Cotton Seed Oil.

WITH the falling off in the cultivation of olives, various oils have been used for the adulteration of olive oil, or for entirely supplanting its use. One much used is cotton seed oil, of which vast quantities are now yearly exported to Europe to be returned to us, bottled and duly labeled heuile d'olive. It certainly would be better to use it in its original form without paying import dues, since it can be so cheaply made that it is largely used in the adulteration of lard, butter, etc. Cotton-seed oil is a bland, pure oil, agreeable to the taste, and in no way injurious. The discovery of its valuable qualities has very much enhanced the profits of the cotton crop of the South, since the seeds have been utilized for the production of this oil as well as for the feeding of stock, instead of allowing them to rot