[Gutenberg 57340] • Coffee and Chicory: / Their culture, chemical composition, preparation for market, / and consumption.

PREFACE.

A PRACTICAL essay on the culture and preparation of

coffee for market in the various producing countries of

the world, brought down to the present time, has long

been wanted, especially as the sources of supply have

changed so much of late years. Porter's "Tropical Agri-

culturist" has long been out of print, and my own work

on " The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom"

is too expensive and too diffuse for ordinary reference.

The present hand-book deals with the subject in a popular

form, .but, at the same time, supplies correct information

on most points, combined with the fullest descriptive and

statistical details respecting every coffee-producing country.

For much of the information relating to coffee cultivation

in Ceylon, I am indebted to a small treatise by Mr. Gr. C.

Lewis, privately published in that island. For the views

of buildings and scenery, I am under obligations to Sir

Emerson Tennent and Messrs. "Worms, who kindly lent

me original drawings and photographs whilst the micro-

scopic representations of pure and adulterated coffee and

chicory are copied, by permission, from Dr. Hassall's ela-

borate work on "Food and its Adulterations." Trusting

that this little work may be found useful and interesting

to a large class, I send it forth as the pioneer of other

hand-books on the great staples of commerce. ...