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. ...
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