Chapter II: Part 2

This is a new industry in our country because civilized people have not lived here very long, but it is a very old one in some parts of the world. As long ago as the seventh century a Roman knight raised oysters for the market, and it is said that the business made him very wealthy.

You will understand better about the cultivation of oysters, if I tell you first how they live and grow in their natural homes.

Except during the first few days of their lives, oysters are prisoners. They cannot move about freely from place to place as fishes and most animals can, but they are attached to rocks, to the shells of their dead relatives, and to other objects. How, then, do you suppose they get their food? They grow in immense numbers, and they crowd one another more than people do in the tenement houses in our great cities. In fact most of them are soon crowded out, and they die, leaving room for the rest to grow upon their empty homes. In this way the oyster beds spread out.

These oyster beds are not found in very deep water, but rather along the shore, generally near the mouth of some river. As I have told you, they often live where they are uncovered when the tide goes out. You can see from this that it is not very difficult to gather oysters, so that, partly on this account, man has used them for food for ages.

When the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the shores of New England, they found that the Indians used oysters very commonly. All along the coast were great heaps of the shells. At the very first Thanksgiving dinner given in America, oysters were served.

Oysters used to be so plentiful on these natural beds that they were very cheap. In some places where the winter weather was cold enough to freeze the water along the shore, people cut holes in the ice and gathered them by means of long-handled rakes.

In a single year an oyster will produce more than a million young ones. Just think of it! If all of this family grew up, they would fill a room fourteen feet in each dimension.

These young oysters are _very_ small. They are called "spat." Most of them are drifted away by waves and currents, or devoured by larger sea animals. The few that escape soon attach themselves to some object, so getting a chance to begin the battle of life.

If oysters are caught at all times of the year it does not give them a chance to produce their young, and this, as well as catching the young ones themselves, has destroyed many of the natural beds. In order to keep up the supply of this food men commenced oyster farming. You see how our daily needs and desires lead to the establishment of great industries.

The oyster farmer prepares his farm in various ways. He places clean oyster shells, stones, trays, bundles of sticks, and other things on the bottom, so that the oysters may find something to which to attach themselves. Then he places the young oysters or "spat" on these objects. When trays are used, several are placed one upon another and bound together by means of a chain. These trays are taken up from time to time in order to gather the oysters that are ready for market.

Stones are sometimes piled on the bottom and the "spat" are placed in the crevices between them. Often stakes are planted in a somewhat circular form. Cords are attached to the stakes, to which bundles of sticks are fastened in such a way as to keep them a little above the bottom. Young oysters attach themselves to these sticks, which may be drawn up when the proper time comes.

Shells are used more commonly than other things. They are taken from the restaurants and hotels to the farms in boat loads, to be scattered over the bottom.

The young oysters grow at very different rates. In two years they may grow to be six inches in length, or it may take several years to reach that size. They grow more rapidly on the artificial beds, and are better in quality also. The starfish is one of the greatest enemies of the oyster, large numbers of which it destroys every year.

During the fishing season the oyster men go to the beds in their boats and scoop the oysters up from the bottom. This is called dredging. The scoops with their loads of oysters are drawn to the deck of the boat by machinery. Sometimes the oysters are gathered by means of long tongs.

As the oysters are usually in clusters, these have to be broken up. For this purpose a sort of a hammer known as a _culling iron_ is used. The oysters are broken apart and sorted. Sometimes the oyster man makes three grades and sometimes four.

Oysters are not the only things drawn up in the dredge. Starfish, lobsters, and various kinds of fishes are gathered in. The starfish are killed and the rest thrown back.

The oysters are heaped up in great piles on the deck of the boat. Sacks and barrels are filled with them, and many car loads are shipped daily from the cities near the fishing grounds. Chesapeake Bay is the center of the oyster industry in our country. Find it. There are oyster beds, however, all along both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts.

Great quantities of oysters are canned near where they are caught. Getting them out of their shells is not an easy matter. For this purpose a knife is used. This work is called in the South "shucking oysters." Canning oysters is an important industry in the city of Baltimore. Have you ever seen cans of oysters that came from there?

A RICE FIELD

When you do not feel quite satisfied with your breakfast, dinner, or supper, and think that there should be a greater variety of food on the table, just come with me and we will visit some of the boys and girls of far-away China. What do you suppose _their_ chief article of food is? Rice. Rice in the morning, rice at noon, and rice at night. Rice from the beginning to the end of the year. In the poorer families a bit of dried fish and some vegetables are usually eaten with it. Those who can afford such things have bits of preserved ginger, mushrooms, and barley cakes with the rice. Of course the rich people have other things to eat, but most of the people of China are poor.

In the fertile portions of China the people live very close together. Gardens take the place of farms. Workmen often receive no more than ten cents a day. On this account they cannot afford the variety of food that we have, but must be content with whatever is cheap and nourishing for their labor. If the rice crop were to fail, the Chinese would suffer. You will see how important this food is to them, when I tell you that they are forbidden by law to sell rice to other countries.

Perhaps you are wondering where the rice that we use in this country comes from. Rice is grown in great quantities in Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Ceylon, India, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, and in our Gulf states.

Rice is the chief food of one half the people of the world. Although we raise large quantities, we produce only about one half of what we use. It is a kind of grain which will not thrive on the fertile Western prairies where corn, oats, and wheat grow. It needs a warm climate and a great deal of water. For this reason the rice fields are found on the marshy lands near the coast, and by the banks of rivers, where they can be easily flooded. Some rice is raised on the uplands, but not so successfully as on the lowlands.

Canals are dug from the streams through the farms, and from these smaller ditches branch off so as to reach all parts. They are so arranged that the farmer can turn the water on or off whenever he wishes. On some of the farms, wells furnish the water to the canals.

In the Gulf states the fields are plowed in the winter, and the rice is sown between the first of April and the middle of May. Sometimes the seed is sown broadcast, as wheat is, and sometimes it is planted in regular drills or trenches about twelve inches apart.

The Japanese sow the seed in gardens, and when the plants are eight or ten inches high, they are pulled up and transplanted to the fields. The men work right in the water, for the fields are flooded at the time.

In our country the farmer floods the field as soon as the seeds are planted, allowing the water to remain five or six days. When the young blade of rice is a few inches high, the field is again flooded. After the second leaf appears on the stalk, the water is turned on and left for twenty or thirty days. After the land dries the crop is hoed. The fields are irrigated from time to time, until about eight days before the harvest, which generally occurs in August.

When full grown, the stalks are from one to six feet in height, with long, slender leaves. The kernels grow much as those of wheat and oats do.

On account of the fields being so wet, rice, in most countries, is cut by hand. In China and Japan small curved sickles are used, and the grain is bound up in very small bundles. In Louisiana and some other parts of the South, regular harvesters are used. They have very broad wheels. Why?

After the grain has been bound into bundles, these are set up in double rows to dry. This is called _shocking_ the rice. The grain is then put through a thrashing machine, to separate it from the straw.

Rice kernels are covered by a husk. Before the husk is removed the grain is often called _paddy rice_. Removing the hulls or husks is called _hulling_. The hulling machine is a long tube into one end of which the rice is poured. Within the tube are ribs which revolve rapidly. As the kernels pass between these the hulls are taken off.

If you were passing through a Chinese village, you might hear sounds like those produced when a man pounds with a mallet on a great piece of timber. On searching for the sounds, you would find that they came from the rice mill. The mill consists of a portion of a log hollowed out and placed upright. In the hollow a quantity of rice is held. A piece of timber, fastened to a pivot, extends in a horizontal position with one end over the mill. To this end another timber is fastened in an upright position. A Chinaman gets on to the end of the long timber which is farthest from the mill. This raises the end with the upright. He then jumps off and the upright falls, striking upon the rice. In this way the hulls are worn off.

After hulling, the grain is carefully screened, in order to remove the hulls, the broken and very small kernels, and the _rice flour_. This latter makes good cattle food.

Perhaps you have noticed that rice kernels have a bluish appearance. This is not natural, but is the result of polishing. The polishing removes much of the best part of the grain, but the rice sells for a higher price simply on account of its appearance.

The polishing machine is cylindrical or drum-like in shape. Moosehide or sheepskin is tacked to the cylinder. It is made to revolve rapidly, so that the kernels are polished as they pass over the skin. After being polished the kernels are run through screens and sorted. The rice is then put up in barrels or sacks and shipped.

HOW SUGAR IS MADE

This picture represents one of the beginnings of the great industry of sugar making. The small objects which you see in the trenches are pieces of sugar cane. These "cuttings," as they are called, are covered with soil. They soon sprout, and from them grow the tall, waving fields of cane, which resemble cornfields. The canes are taller than cornstalks, however. How high do you think those shown in the picture are?

In about ten months after planting the cane is ready to cut. In the Southern states this work usually begins about the middle of October.

The canes are jointed, as cornstalks are, and the spongy substance between the joints is filled with a sweet juice. It is from this juice or sap that cane sugar is made. I have seen children chew pieces of the cane, and enjoy it as you do candy; for this use it is sometimes sold in stores in the South.

After the canes are cut they are hauled to the mill or sugarhouse on wagons. On the large plantations _tram cars_ sometimes run right into the fields.

At the mill the canes are run between heavy rollers, which squeeze out the sap. Sometimes as many as seventy-five pounds of sap are obtained from one hundred pounds of cane. The crushed stalks are used in the mill for fuel, and the ashes are returned to the land to fertilize it.

When the juice is first pressed out, it is not at all clear in color. It is then placed in great vats or kettles and heated. This heating causes the water which is in the sap to evaporate, and it also brings some of the impurities to the top, where they are skimmed off. When the evaporating has been finished, there are two products, molasses and brown sugar.

The sugar must next be refined. For this purpose it is usually sent to cities outside of the sugar belt. There are great refineries in New Orleans, San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, and other cities.

When the _raw sugar_, as it is called, reaches the refinery, which is generally a tall building, it is taken to the top story and dissolved in hot water. It then passes through bags which act as _filters_, and through a great cylinder which contains burned bones, known as _bone-black_. You remember that I told you that the bones of the cattle were saved. This is one of the uses to which they are put. When the liquid comes out of this bone filter it is a perfectly clear sirup, which is then crystallized.

You know that we buy refined sugar in three forms: granulated sugar, loaf sugar, and pulverized sugar. When granulated sugar is wanted, the crystals are placed in a great drum, which revolves until they are thoroughly dried in the right form. To make loaf sugar, the crystals are pressed into molds, then dried, and cut into the size desired. In powdered sugar they are simply ground to a powdered condition.

Think how much labor is required to produce sugar, and yet you can buy it for five cents a pound.

There are great fields of sugar cane in the Gulf states, in Cuba, in the Hawaiian Islands, in the East Indies, in India, and in other warm, moist parts of the world. We buy a great deal of sugar from Cuba, and from the Hawaiian Islands. To what city do you think the sugar from the Hawaiian Islands is sent?

BEET SUGAR

Although the cane fields of the moist, hot countries yield great quantities of sugar, there are other sources from which this useful product comes. In the year 1747 a German scientist discovered that sugar can be made from beets, and now about two thirds of our supply come from these plants.

The sugar beet is not just like the plant of the same name which we raise for table use. It is white, and sometimes weighs as much as ten or fifteen pounds. Beets do not need so much water nor so much heat as sugar cane, so they can be raised in Germany, France, Austria, Russia, and other countries, as well as in California, Utah, and Nebraska, in our own land.

In some parts of California there are fields of beets stretching for miles. The seeds are planted in rows, which, after the plants have come up, are thinned. In four or five months from the time the seeds are planted, the beets are ready to harvest.

On most of the large _ranches_ the beets are dug by machinery. Men then move back and forth in the fields, cutting off the leaves and a little of the upper part of the beet, for this contains too much mineral matter to be of value in making sugar. The workmen use large knives, and they walk on their knees.

The beets are now taken to the factory in wagons, or, if it is far away, they are sent on trains. When the loads of beets reach the factory, they are weighed. The teamsters then drive up an inclined plane to a plank roadway. There are generally several of these. On each side of the road or platform are deep V-shaped trenches with wooden sides, in which streams of water run. When the wagon has reached the right spot, the platform upon which it rests is raised in a slanting position, and the beets fall into the trench.

A basket full of beets is taken from each load and tested, to see how much sugar they contain, for this determines the price to be paid.

The stream of water in the trench carries the beets along, just as they would be carried in a brook. This, you see, is a quick and easy way of washing them.

The streams of water carry the beets into the factory, where they are cut up into strips by machinery. The juice is then washed out in vats containing warm water, and is boiled down in great tanks. The raw sugar is refined much as the cane sugar is. After the sugar has been dried, it is run through spouts into sacks held open to catch it as it comes out. One hundred pounds are put into each sack. One workman sews the sacks up and another wheels them to the wareroom. Train loads are carried away to be distributed in the parts of our country that do not produce sugar.

MAPLE SUGAR

You would enjoy helping to make some maple sugar, I am sure, so let us make a trip to the woods of Vermont or New York, where maple sugar is made from the sap of the sugar-maple tree.

You will need your cap and mittens, as the sugar season is the early spring, when there is yet snow on the ground. Besides, some of the work is done at night, and you will not wish to miss that.

The owner of the "sugar bush" bores holes into the trees a short distance from the ground, into which he slips small spouts, called "spiles."

This is called _tapping_ the trees. Underneath the spout a pail is placed. During the day the sap trickles out and runs into the pail. During the colder hours of the night the sap flows slowly, if at all. Sometimes it is so cold that little sap runs for two or three days at a time.

The sap is collected in barrels and drawn on sleds to the camp or place where it is to be boiled down. This is done in great pans called _evaporators_, which may be five or six feet wide, and fifteen feet long. They are divided into sections, and these are connected by means of little openings.

The sap flows into one end of the evaporator and follows a zigzag path through the different sections. By flowing slowly over so large a surface, evaporation goes on rapidly and the sap is changed to sirup by the time it has finished its journey.

The sirup is put up in cans, or boiled down into sugar, which is molded into small cakes, and brings a high price.

"Sugaring off," as the boiling down of the sap is called, is quite an event. Often a number of people will be invited to go to the sugarhouse and take part in the operation.

Before the modern evaporator came into use "sugaring off" always occurred at night. This was necessary, because during the day the sap buckets had to be attended to. The young people would sing songs, tell stories, and eat sugar.

Some of the "sugar bushes" contain but a few trees and some contain one or two thousand or even more. A tree will yield from one to six pounds of sugar during a season.

Our country produces great quantities of sugar every year, but we use so much that we have to buy much more than we manufacture at home. It was not always in such common use, however, because people in olden times did not understand how to make it cheaply.

Long, long ago sugar was used only as a medicine. Don't you wish that all medicine to-day was as good as sugar? About seven hundred years ago an Italian nobleman died and left to his relatives, among other things, _six pounds of sugar_. His will caused considerable comment among the people, who said that no one family should be allowed to have so much sugar in its possession.

WHERE SALT COMES FROM

The Arab, journeying over the yellow sands, riding upon the back of his faithful "ship of the desert," often looks longingly for some sign of water to cool his parched lips. The sailor may ride upon the beautiful blue waters of the ocean in his white-winged ship; but although there is nothing but water to greet his eyes, he cannot drink it, for it is bitter to the taste.

If you were to place a quantity of ocean water over a fire and evaporate it, there would remain a white substance. This is common salt. You see that it is as necessary to provide fresh water when one wishes to cross the ocean, as it is if one is going to cross the desert.

Most streams and lakes contain _fresh_ water, so you will wonder why the waters of the ocean are briny. The rocks and soil of the earth contain salt, and the streams wash it from the land. Each one carries so little that we do not notice it, but they have worked so steadily and so long, that they have carried a great amount to the sea. None of it can escape, so the ocean gets more and more briny.

No healthy person would ever think of eating salt alone as a food, and yet our food would taste very unsatisfactory without it. Farmers supply their cattle and horses with salt, and wild animals search for it in the forests, and lick it from the soil with their tongues.

Salt is so important to us that I want to tell you about some of the ways in which men obtain it.

Sometimes sea water is placed in great vats and evaporated. This leaves the salt, which is then refined. You know that the sun's heat causes the waters of a shallow pond to evaporate during warm weather. Shallow basins are often scooped out along the coast, and the waters which fill them are then shut off from the larger body. In time the water evaporates, and the salt, which has formed in thin layers, is collected.

I said that most lakes are fresh-water bodies. There are some, however, that are _very_ salty. Great Salt Lake is one of these. Streams flow into it, but none flows out. If you were to bathe in the waters of this lake, you would find that your body would not sink.

I have seen great piles of glistening salt along the shore of Great Salt Lake which had been obtained by evaporation. A railroad runs beside the lake, and the salt is loaded upon the cars to be hauled away. When the people first settled in Utah, they used to drive to the lake in wagons to get a supply of salt.

Although the ocean and a few lakes contain immense quantities of this useful article, we get most of our supply from other sources.

In the western part of New York State, at some distance below the surface of the earth, there is a thick layer of salt. Wells are drilled down to this; water is pumped into them, and then pumped out again as brine. This brine is evaporated in large pans made of iron, two quarts of brine yielding about a pound of salt.

In China salt has been obtained in this way for hundreds and even thousands of years. Though they had little machinery to work with in those days, yet by patient, steady effort, they drilled wells two thousand and even three thousand feet in depth. From twenty-five to forty years were required to drill some of these wells. Those who commenced them knew that they were not likely to enjoy the fruits of their labor and that others must get the benefit of what they did. What does this show about these people? What benefits are you receiving from what others have done?

Salt is also mined as coal and iron are. This is called _rock salt_. It is obtained in Germany, Poland, Austria, India, the United States, and in many other countries.

One of the most interesting salt fields of the world is in the southeastern part of California. It is on the Colorado Desert, near the Colorado River. This was once a part of the ocean floor and the rocks contain much salt. Water seeping through the earth dissolves the salt and brings it to the surface at this place. What happens to the water?

This salt field covers an area of about one thousand acres, to a depth of from one to eight inches. You can see by the picture that it looks more like a field of snow and ice than one of salt. The bright sunlight is reflected from its surface with such power that it hurts one's eyes.

A great plow drawn by a steam engine moves over this dazzling field, and throws the salt up in furrows. It is then piled up, loaded on to cars, and taken to sheds, where it is purified. Indians and Japanese do most of the work.

In order to purify the brines they are boiled in iron pans and treated in various ways to make them fit for table use. When evaporation is rapid, the salt crystals are quite small, but slower evaporation produces larger ones. Rock salt is dissolved in water and then evaporated. To get the finest of salt, the crystals must be ground. When salt is to be used for other purposes than to season food, not so much pains are taken. Name other uses of salt.

In olden times, when salt was not so easily obtained as it is to-day, it was regarded in some countries as a luxury. This seems strange, does it not? At one time the Chinese made it into little cakes, stamped the image of the emperor upon it, and used it as money. In Arabia those who together ate food which had been salted, believed that this established a special bond of friendship between them. This led to the old saying, "There is salt between us."

MACARONI AND VERMICELLI

Have you ever wondered as you have looked at the hollow sticks of macaroni in the stores or as you have eaten them at the table, how they were made in that way, and what they were made of?

In Italy macaroni is a very important article of food, and its use is rapidly increasing in our own country. For a long time it was not made outside of Italy, where the city of Genoa was the center of the industry. Locate this city. Do you know what great man was born there? Now macaroni and vermicelli are made in other countries. There are a few factories in the United States, but most of what we use still comes from Italy.

In making these foods only the best hard wheat is used.

After grinding the wheat, the bran is taken out and the flour is placed in a large wooden tub. Water is added, and the two are mixed by hand for a few minutes. In this tub a marble wheel about five feet in diameter and eighteen inches in thickness is fastened in an upright position. This wheel weighs about a ton.

After the flour and water have been mixed, the wheel is set in motion by machinery, and it slowly circles around in the tub, pressing the dough under it.

A man keeps walking in front of the wheel, moving the dough from the edges of the tub and placing it directly in the path of it. This work of pressing the flour into a paste continues for a little more than half an hour.

The wheel is then stopped and the paste, which is quite stiff, is cut into cakes about a foot square and from one to three inches in thickness.

These are put into an iron cylinder heated by steam. In the bottom of the cylinder is a copper plate filled with holes having the centers filled. A cover fitted to a great screw which turns by machinery is placed on top. This slowly, but steadily, presses the paste downward. It is thus forced through these openings, and of course comes out in the form of round, hollow pipes.

As these pipes issue from the cylinder, they are straightened out on a wooden tray or platform, and with a large, sharp knife cut into lengths of about three feet. They are then taken to a drying room and spread on wire frames covered with oiled paper. Here they are left for about five days, after which they are placed in boxes and are ready to ship.

The only difference between macaroni and vermicelli is that the pipes of vermicelli are very small and are not hollow.

When vermicelli is wanted, two plates are placed on the bottom of the press. The under one is of iron and contains holes about one inch in diameter. The upper one is of copper and contains _groups_ of very small openings. There are sometimes eighty of these openings in a group. When the plates are screwed together, the groups of small holes are directly above the larger openings.

As the paste is pressed, it passes through the little holes and then issues from the larger ones; this keeps each little group of pipes somewhat apart from the others.

Saffron is added to the paste to color it, and the great golden mass is quite a pretty sight as it steadily lengthens.

The workman cuts off six or seven feet of it at a time; and holding it above his head with one hand, he shakes it out with the other, as one might shake the folds of a piece of silk. The pipes tangle up very little. They are cut into lengths of about eighteen inches.

It is then taken to the drying room and spread out on the trays just as the macaroni is. A handful of the vermicelli is taken at a time, and by a peculiar twist of the arm it is placed on the paper in a form something like that of the letter _n_. After drying for five days it is packed and shipped.

ON A COFFEE PLANTATION

Juan and Lupe live in a beautiful valley where palm and banana trees wave their broad leaves in the breeze. It is never cold there, so that many kinds of plants and flowers grow out of doors which we do not see in our country except in greenhouses. On clear days they can see lofty mountains far to the westward, which sometimes wear caps of white.

Juan is fourteen years old and Lupe is twelve. Their skin is much darker than yours, and they have bright black eyes and black hair. Their father owns a great coffee plantation in Brazil, not far from the city of Rio Janeiro.

There are many men, women, and children employed on the plantation, and Juan and Lupe enjoy roaming about from place to place and watching them at their work.

In the nursery they see men planting the coffee seeds in the rich soil. There are some plants that have just come up, and some that are ready to transplant. They are set out in rows, six or eight feet apart each way, and sometimes more.

The trees would grow much taller than those you see in the picture, if they were not kept pruned. Do you know why they are prevented from growing tall? Whenever you look at a coffee plantation, you see the dark green foliage of the tree, which is an evergreen. Lupe is very fond of the blossoms. They are clear white and very fragrant.

A tree will yield a small amount the second year after planting, but it will not produce a full crop for five or more years. Two pounds is a good average crop for a tree.

The children like to watch the pickers as they go from tree to tree. Many of them are about their own age. Some carry a sack slung over the shoulders, and others carry baskets or pails. The _berries_ must be picked by hand, for they do not all ripen at once. They are dark scarlet in color and look a little like cranberries. A good picker gathers about three bushels in a day. The pickers are given a check every time they fill a basket. Sometimes Juan tends to this work, and he enjoys it very much. At the end of each week the pickers are paid according to the number of checks they have.

Within the berry are two kernels or seeds, with their flat sides together. These are called "coffee beans." It is these beans from which the drink is made.

The picking is but a small part of the work of preparing coffee for the market. The first operation is removing the pulp. This used to be done by tramping on the berries, but now it is done in a better way.

The berries are thrown into a large tank filled with water, which carries them through a pipe to the pulping machine. This machine removes the pulp and separates the beans.

Next the beans are carried to a second tank, where they remain for about twenty-four hours, to wash off a sticky substance which covers the shell of the bean.

If you have ever put beans or peas into a basin of water, you have noticed that nearly all of them sink, while a few float. These latter are the poor ones. This is the way in which the good and bad coffee beans are separated. A pipe carries off the seeds that float on the surface of the water.

The beans are dried on cement floors upon which they are spread. This drying takes a long time. Before sunset each day the coffee must be carried under shelter, for the dew injures it. While they are drying, the workmen stir them. Sometimes artificial heat is used, but this is expensive. Juan's father has a watchman whose duty it is to guard the coffee at night, for it is very valuable.

Each bean is covered by a strong shell, or hull, which has to be removed. The soaking has loosened this, and so it comes off easier than it otherwise would. Juan and Lupe often watch the wheels of the huller as they turn, moved by patient oxen.

There are two wheels set upright over a circular box, into which the coffee is put. As it passes between the wheels and the bottom of the box, the hulls are removed. Underneath the hull is a thin skin, which is also taken off.

In some countries people want the coffee dyed or colored. A bluish color is given to it by coating the wheels of the hulling machine with lead.

The hulls are separated from the beans in a winnowing machine, and the coffee is then sorted. Often this is done by hand. The beans are spread out on a table, and girls and boys, and sometimes grown persons, sort it into several grades.

Juan's father has this work done by machinery. The coffee is put into a cylinder, in the bottom of which there are holes of different sizes by which it is graded.

The last process is to sack the coffee and send it by railroad to Rio Janeiro. Of course it is neither roasted nor ground until it reaches its destination.

We do not produce coffee in our country, but we are the greatest coffee drinkers in the world. A large part of our supply comes from Brazil. Trace the course of the ship from Rio Janeiro to New York. Juan has often done this, and his father has promised to take him with him sometime, when he goes with a cargo of coffee.

You naturally think that coffee of different names must come from different countries, or at least from different trees. This is not always the case. Several brands may come from the same tree. The name depends partly upon the size and the general appearance of the beans.

Coffee is a native of the far East, but it has gradually been transplanted to other countries, until it is now very extensively used. Brazil, Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, the Hawaiian Islands, Java, Ceylon, and Arabia are coffee-raising countries.

In 1551 coffee found its way to the city of Constantinople; in 1652 it had reached London; and in 1720 it was planted in the West Indies. You see it worked its way westward rather slowly.

Several hundred years ago, coffee was very expensive, so that only the rich could afford to use it. Instead of drinking it at home, people went to "coffeehouses," where it was served. To these "coffeehouses" men brought whatever news they had heard and told it to one another. In this way these places served about the same purpose that newspapers do now.

THE TEA GARDENS OF CHINA

At the bottom of the teapot you will find some leaves. Spread one of them out carefully. You can see that it was once long and slender, a little like willow leaves. It may have grown in some garden in far-away China, for we get a great deal of tea from that country.

I have told you how close together the people live on the fertile plains of eastern China. There is so little room that many live on boats on the rivers and in the harbors. On this account their farms are not so large as ours.

The tea trees in the gardens are about five or six feet high. If they were allowed to, they would reach a height of twenty-five feet; but they are kept trimmed for the same reasons that the coffee trees are pruned.

The trees are raised from seeds, and are generally planted on land which slopes toward the south. What advantage is this?

In about three years after planting, the first crop of leaves can be gathered. In China they are usually gathered four times each year, and the trees continue to yield for twenty-five or thirty years.

When the leaves are picked, they are full of sap or juice, and so have to be dried. The drying is usually done on trays made of bamboo. While they are drying, they are rubbed and rolled between the palms of the hands, so that they may dry more quickly and evenly.

Next the leaves are placed, a few at a time, in iron pans over a charcoal fire. They are left in these but a short time, for they are hot. This process is called "firing." Sometimes the leaves are "fired" but once, and sometimes twice.

The tea is then spread out, and broken bits of stems are removed. Some of the tea growers place the tea in baskets which are suspended over slow fires, for drying.

If you were to look into some of the _tea-hongs_ or houses where tea is cured and packed, you would find the tea dried in a very curious fashion.

In one of the rooms you would see several Chinamen rolling and tossing balls about with their bare feet. The balls are about the size of footballs and are partly filled with tea. Although it looks like play, it is hard work. As the balls are tossed about, the tea leaves are given their rounded or twisted appearance. From time to time the workers stop and tie the bags up more closely at the neck. This method is used in making _gunpowder tea_.

Black and green teas are not different varieties, but are produced by different methods of handling.

In the great tea-hongs there are professional _tasters_,--that is, men who do nothing but sip tea from small cups, so as to grade it and fix its value. This is considered a very particular line of work and requires an educated taste.

The ocean atmosphere has a bad effect on tea, so that the very finest grades are seldom sent across the sea. When tea is to be shipped by water, it is placed in boxes lined with a sort of sheet lead. This protects the tea greatly. Most of the tea sent to the United States lands at San Francisco. Why? How does it get to other parts of our country?

Great quantities of tea are pressed into the form of bricks and sent over mountains and across deserts into Russia.

This is called "brick tea." The Russians are great tea drinkers, and whenever any one calls in Russia, tea is served. They call their teapot a _samovar_.

Better tea is obtained from Ceylon and India than from China. In these countries Europeans have charge of most of the tea farms, and they have carefully studied the cultivation and handling of tea.

There is a little tea raised in our own country in the state of South Carolina. It is very fine in quality and people are willing to pay a high price for it. Some of it has been sold for five dollars a pound.

When tea was first brought into Europe, it was regarded as a great luxury, just as coffee was. People paid as much as fifty dollars a pound for it. It is said that some of the tea raised to-day for the royal family of China, is worth a hundred dollars a pound.

Many people in this country do not enjoy a cup of tea unless they have milk and sugar in it. The Chinese do not use either in their tea. In Russia it is quite common to draw the tea through a lump of sugar held between the teeth.

You know that tea parties are very common. The most celebrated tea party ever held was called the "Boston Tea Party." See what you can find out about it.

A CUP OF COCOA

On the eighteenth day of June, in the year 1771, this notice appeared in the _Essex Gazette_ of Massachusetts:--

"AMOS TRASK,

At his House a little below the Bell-Tavern in

DANVERS,

Makes and sells Chocolate,

which he will warrant to be good, and takes Cocoa to grind. Those
who may please to favor him with their Custom may depend upon being
well served, and at a very cheap Rate."

This seems to have been the first notice of the manufacture and sale of cocoa and chocolate in our country. What is peculiar about the notice?

In those days the raw product was brought to Massachusetts by the Gloucester fishermen. They obtained it in the West Indies in exchange for fish and other things which they took there.

When the Spanish soldier, Cortez, conquered Mexico in 1519, he found that the people of that country were very fond of a drink which they called "chocolatl." It was served to their ruler, Montezuma, in a cup of gold. When the Spaniards went home, they of course introduced the drink into their own country. For a long time it was very expensive and was not commonly used outside of Spain, for the Spaniards kept the secret of its preparation.

Cocoa and chocolate are products of the seeds of a tree called the cacao tree. It is a tropical tree and grows in both the Old and the New World.

Although the cacao tree grows wild, it is also cultivated in orchards much like fruit orchards which you have seen. The trees are seldom more than twenty feet high, but they are rather inclined to spread out. They require some shade, and so other trees are often planted between the rows to shade them. The trees begin to bear when five or six years old, and continue to yield for forty years. There are generally two chief harvests each year, but the fruit is ripening all of the time.

The blossoms, which grow in clusters, are small and pink or yellow in color. They grow directly from the branches or the trunk of the tree.

(Permission of WALTER BAKER & CO., Ltd.)]

In about four months after the tree has blossomed, you will find dark yellow or brown pods hanging from it. These look a little like ripe cucumbers, but they are more pointed at one end and are grooved or fluted. These pods are from six inches to a foot or more in length, with a rather thick, tough rind.

How do you think the pods are gathered? They are cut off by men carrying long poles, sometimes of bamboo, to the ends of which knives are fastened. Only the ripe pods are cut off and collected in a heap under the tree. They are left in these heaps for about twenty-four hours, when they are cut open and the seeds are gathered in baskets.

The seeds are called "beans." There are five rows of them, about the size of almonds, within the pink pulp of the fruit. When fresh they are white, but when dried they are brown. If you taste one, you will find it bitter.

You have often seen on packages of chocolate, as well as on the cans of breakfast cocoa, the picture of a young woman carrying some chocolate upon a tray. It is the picture of a beautiful girl who once served chocolate in the old city of Vienna. Her name was Anette Baldauff, and she married a rich count and "lived happily ever after." It is said that a painting of her hangs upon the walls of the great art gallery in Dresden. Point out the cities I have mentioned.

The seeds are carried from the orchard to the sheds, where they are prepared for market. Here they go through a process of fermentation or "sweating." For this purpose they are placed in a covered box, or they may even be covered with earth. This is called "claying." Now the seeds must be dried. They are spread out on platforms, raised a little above the ground, so that the air can circulate underneath. You notice that the roofs do not cover them just now, for their only purpose is to keep off the dew and the rain. They are fastened to frames which have wheels under them. During the day they are not used, but at night they are rolled over the cocoa.

(Permission of WALTER BAKER & CO., Ltd.)]

The cocoa is stirred by workmen using long shovels or rakes, so that it may dry quickly and evenly. Once a day the beans are shoveled into heaps and the workmen tread upon them with their bare feet, as you see. This is called "dancing the cocoa."

After the seeds have dried for about two weeks they are nearly the color of red bricks. They are put up for shipment in canvas sacks holding one hundred and fifty pounds each. The name of the plantation is usually stamped upon the outside. Guayaquil exports more cocoa than any other city. Find it. A great deal comes from the island of Trinidad, and from the northern part of South America.

When the "beans" have reached their destination, they must be cleaned, to rid them of dust and dirt collected on the way. They are then placed in a great revolving cylinder and roasted. You remember that when coffee is roasted it brings out a pleasant odor called its _aroma_. The same is true of cocoa. The roasting also helps to loosen a shell which surrounds the seed. The shell is next removed and the "beans" are then crushed.

The Mexicans used to crush the seeds on a large stone, hollowed out on top. This they called a "matate."

(Permission of WALTER BAKER & CO., Ltd.)]

The crushing is now done by machinery. The broken bits of the cocoa are called "cocoa nibs." When the cocoa is ground to a powder, it is put into strong bags and pressed. This pressure removes a part of an oily substance known as "cocoa butter." Remember, then, that cocoa is the meal or flour made from the crushed seeds from which some of the oil has been removed. Chocolate differs from cocoa in that none of this oil is removed in making it.

(Permission of WALTER BAKER & CO., Ltd.)]

You have often seen the words "sweet chocolate" on the labels. This is made by adding a quantity of pulverized sugar to the "plain" or "bitter" chocolate. Sometimes vanilla beans are added.

(Permission of WALTER BAKER & CO., Ltd.)]

The pasty mass known as chocolate must be molded. When the proper amount has been placed in each of several metal molds which rest on a table, they are made to rock or shake, and this causes the chocolate to assume the right shape. The molds are then taken to the cooling room, where they are placed on frames, one above another, in long rows. Girls and women wrap the cakes of chocolate in the wrappers specially prepared for them, after which they are packed in boxes ready for shipment.

At Dorchester, Massachusetts, on the Neponset River, is situated the largest establishment for the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate in America. It is interesting to know that on the very spot where these great mills now stand, was built, in 1765, the first one of the kind in this country.

A CRANBERRY BOG

WAREHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, Dec. 10, 1901.

DEAR FRANK: How surprised you will be to learn that I am now a country boy. We left Boston early last spring, and came out here to go into the business of cranberry raising. It seemed very strange at first to travel along country roads, or through woods and fields, instead of upon the cement walks of our city streets, but we all think the country delightful.

A cranberry farm is a marsh or a bog, so you will see that the vines need a great deal of water. There are both wild and cultivated bogs. Those that are cultivated are provided with a system of ditches, so that they can be flooded from time to time. It is a good deal like irrigation in Southern California, I suppose. We flood the bogs to prevent the berries from freezing, as well as to furnish the vines with water. I will tell you more about that by and by.

Father wanted a larger bog than the one he first bought, so, soon after we came, he got another small piece of marsh land which joins it on the west, and started vines on it.

You know that willows, rosebushes, grapevines, and many other plants will grow from _cuttings_. It is the same with cranberry vines. The lower end of each cutting is pressed into the soil, and it soon begins to grow. They are set in rows about fourteen inches apart. One of our neighbors, who was starting a bog at the same time, cut the vines into pieces an inch or two long, and scattered them over the ground. He then harrowed them in. The vines multiply just as strawberry plants do, by putting out _runners_.

They tell us that our new bog will produce a crop in three years. Do you have to wait that long for a crop of oranges?

By the middle of June our bog was in full blossom. The flowers are quite small and their color is a little like that of the flesh. I read an interesting thing about them the other day. It seems that the berries used to be called "craneberries," because people thought that the blossoms, just before they opened fully, "resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane." By dropping the _e_, we got the present name.

During our harvest time, which lasted from the middle of September to the last of October, we were very busy. We did not commence to go to school until the berries were picked. You see, frost may occur and spoil the crop, so that everybody works as fast as possible until the harvest is over. Father had about twenty pickers some of the time, besides our own family.