Shawnigan Lake School - Yearbook (Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia Canada)

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Shawnigan Lake School Magazine One night he decided he must leave this terrible land. Slipping out of camp he steadily made his way over the mountains towards the coast. The wind began to howl and soon snow was falling heavily. Gasping for breath, Watitsi stumbled forward, knowing that rest meant death. Feverishly he rubbed his bronze skin to keep the awful coldness out of his body. Slowly he crawled over the snow covered boulders, his hands raw and his face blue. Childhood memories returned, the green fields, the weeping willows and best of all the rising sun. Pillowing his head on his cold arms he lay down, he knew he was dying but ah! death seemed sweet. The snow soon covered the huddled form of Watitsi and the sun rose on a little lump of snow that would hide his body from his friends for many a day. C. P. F. A JAPANESE STREET We are walking down a Japanese street and it is the time of the Omatsuni (boys ' festival). Everywhere the houses are decorated — straw ropes with white praying paper and pine branches sway in the wind. The street is filled with loudly talking crowds, and darting among them are the Japanese children dressed in their kimona and geta. In the bewildering profusion of colour our attention is finally drawn to the gaily decorated shops. How delightfully neat they are and how different from the shops one sees in Europe. The owners sit in front of their doorways and some patiently make their wares. We espy one old man diligently carving a little boat. Here in the street can be seen the Japanese fondness for flowers and shrubs, for these are everywhere. We are surprised to find them in the street itself, in the open doorways, and blossoming gaily from the windows above. Since this is the boys ' festival, the centre of interest for all of us is the procession of temples. These are ornate gold and lacquer miniatures of real temples and each is borne aloft on the shoulders of thirty boys. We watch the procession sway out of sight and regret- fully realize that the bovs ' festival is ended. E. C. M. E. THE CULTIVATION AND PREPARATION OF COFFEE The coffees grown in Central America are usually classed as mild, which distinguishes them from the harsher type grown in Brazil. The mildness is attributable in part to the nature of the soils in which they are grown, but perhaps more to the preparation of the coffee for market. The greater bulk of the Central American production is Arabian Coffee, which is grown at an elevation of [ 28 ]

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Shawnigan Lake School Magazine JdlCW L J it I e Wil ' ieS Qone Guiftu V g see S race no more for what he thought u $ H 2 Was H a SO WATITSI Watitsi Avas the sou of Old Tana, the village fisherman. All his life had been spent in the village of Katsuza which nestled on the coastline of great Nippon. The brisk sea air and the hardy work of a fisherboy ' s life had developed him into a fine strong youth of seventeen. One morning a man came to his father ' s cottage and told Watitsi that he must leave his work and join the army. Although he was sorry to leave his home, he felt proud that he would fight the Chin- ese barbarians and win glory for his Emperor and Nippon. Slowly the last few Japanese islands disappeared from Watitsi ' s tear filled eyes as the troop ship headed Avest to China. The green- sloped shores never had meant so much to him as they did that day. The next feAv Aveeks Avas a nightmare for poor Watitsi. Attacks, retreats, ambushes and the eternal raids of the peasant guerrilas were foreA er robbing him of his comrades and he began to feel dis- heartened. ' Banzai, Nippon, ' he had cried as he fought in the first Aveek, but only muttered curses escaped his lips noAV. [ 27 ]

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Shawnigan Lake School Magazine from 2,500 to 5,000 feet, under shade trees, and is fermented and washed before shipment. The amount of work entailed is little appreciated in the consum- ing countries. Seedbeds are first planted with carefully selected ber- ries. A few months later these seedlings are transferred to very care- fully prepared and protected nurseries, where the young coffee tree passes the first two years of its life and reaches a height of about three feet. In the meantime the future plantation is being prepared ; the ground has to be cleared and holes dug for the transplanting. These holes are usually a cubic yard in size and are spaced at inter- vals of three to four yards in regular lines so arranged as to derive most benefit from the run of surface waters and the strike of the sun ' s rays. At the same time two distinct systems of shade trees are planted, th e first a quick-growing tree which will protect the young plant in its first two years of exposure, and the second, the per- manent shade which will grow to a greater height and cover the cof- fee after the temporary shade trees are removed. When the young trees have been planted out, they will require great attention during the five years before they are in full produc- tion. The ground has to be cleared of all undergrowth, and this, in the lush tropics, involves hand cleaning five times a year. It is cus- tomary to manure each young tree and this is also done by hand. After five years the tree may produce as much as fifteen pounds of raw coffee, which, after factory treatment, is reduced to three pounds of the green berry, which is brought to foreign markets. It will now be seen that there is indeed a great deal of work, time, expenditure and patience needed to produce three pounds of coffee. The ripe red coffee beans are picked from the trees by hand and then transported to the factory ' ' . There they are pulped , a pro- cess which removes the outer husk of the cherry and releases the two beans which it contains. These beans are yet wrapped in a parchment surrounded by a jelly. A process of fermentation en- ables this jelly to be washed off, and the beans, still in their parch- ment, are then spread on the drying ground and raked over con- tinually for some ten days until thoroughly dry. They are then brought back to the factory and hulled to remove the parchment; then they pass through bronze polishing rollers, which remove yet another skin, the Silver Skin ; then they pass grading separators which sort them into some nine shapes, sizes and qualities. The final operation is to place each grade on trays where they are picked over by hand to remove all imperfections. The final Green Coffee is then ready for shipment. It has to be bagged, freighted to a seaport, loaded in barges and an export tax paid — and it is then F.O.B. as we say. Incidental to the working of a plantation is the necessity of main- taining roads, telephones, kitchens, medical and hospital service for the workers and schooling for the children. There is indeed a great deal of work involved in preparing that cup of coffee for you. J. A. F. r 29 l