OCR Text |
Show 212 oe OTE cae FiorBWA a Ae me Aa turn. COFFEE TREE. These are proofs, however, how few people arecapable of making proper inferences from experiment. I think neither coffee nor tea affurd any very material support, that is, contain very little nutriment: they are rather the vehi. cles of nourishment than nutritious of themselves: the most that can be expected from them in general is, that they are grateful, and verylittle injurious. Custom has adopted them both; and it becomes us to make them as useful to ourselves, and as sub. servient to public good, as may be in our power. China, that supplies us with tea, is remote; the navigation long and dan. gerous; the climate not always favourable to our seamen: ine deed, all long voyages are injurious, and the hotter the climate the worse. As a nation, a commercial nation, whose accommodations depend on this useful race of people, we cannot, as friends to humanity, wish to promote the consumption of those articles which are introduced at so great an expense of useful lives. Coffee from our ownplantations is in this respect much preferable to tea; the voyage is shorter, the risk is less. Supposing, then, that tea andcoffee are alike in respect to real use- fulness ; that one is not inferior to the other in respect to the health of the consumers: suppose, likewise, that the disadvantage with respect to the lives of the seamen were equal, which however is not the case, there is one material difference that ought to turn the scale in favour of the more general use of cof. fee—it is raised by our fellow-subjects, and paid for with our manufactures. Tea, on the contrary, is paid for principally with money. The quantity of British goods which the Chinese take from us is inconsiderable when compared with the quantity we pay for in bullion. The Chinese take from us every article which they can turn to national benefit, and whatever enables them to improve theit manufactures. Besides raw silk, and a few otherarticles of some little use in our own manufactures, most other things im- ported from thence we can do without, especially if the consumption of our coffee was encouraged. Were the duties and excise upon coffee, for instance, reduced to a quarter part, more COFFEE TREE. 913 than an inferior kind. ‘These must be the certain effects of increased demand. There is another consideration of some moment likewise ; whichis, that the cultivation of coffee might be carried on in such manner as the lesser planters might subsist by it, and a few similar articles, cotton particularly, with little stock, and without much expense for negroes. No little planter can make sugar to advantage; the expense of negroes, cattle, mills, and other requisites of a sugar plantation, are beyond his reach: if he has any landed property; by one means or another he is often obliged to sell it to his richer neighbour, and to remove to some other country less unfavourable to contracted circum. stances. Thus the islands are gradually thinned of the white inhabitants ; they become less able to quell the insurrections of their negroes, or to oppose any hostile invasion. Lessening the duty would increase the consumption, prevent smuggling, enable many whites to gain a comfortable support, and to pay for our manufactures. As it is raised by our own people, imported with less risk of seamen’s health and lives, in a political light it must certainly deserve the deliberate attention of the legislature. How to mage Correc. Pour a pint of boiling water on an ounce of coffee; let it boil five or six minutes, then pour out a cupful two or three times, and return it again; put two or three isinglass chips into it, or a lumpor two offine sugar; boilit five minutes longer, set the pot by the fire to keep hot for ten minutes, and you will have your coffee of a beautiful clearness. Some like a small bit of vanilla. Cream should always be served with coffee, andeither pounded sugar-candyor fine Lisbon sugar. For foreigners, or those who like it extremely strong, makeonlyeight dishes from three ounces, If not fresh roasted, lay it before a fire till hot and dry; or put the smallest bit of fresh butter into a presery- ing-pan ; when hot throw the coffee into it, andtoss it about till it be freshened. than double the quantity would be consumed: was the consump- MEDICAL USE. tion greater, the planters wouldfind it their interest to cultivate the trees with more attention: increased demand wouldincreasé ihe price ; aud as more came to market, the best would sell dearer It may require a good deal of sagacity to determine how far the French custom of drinking coffee immediately after dinner right; but I think it can admit of no dispute, whether a dish : coffee or a bottle of wine may then beless prejudicial to leulth, |