370 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



furnished with their full complement of foliage. The 

 seeds are known to be ripe when the berries assume 

 a dark red colour, and if not then gathered will 

 drop from the trees. The planters in Arabia do not 

 pluck the fruit, but place cloths for its reception 

 beneath the trees which they shake, and the ripened 

 berries drop readily. These are afterwards spread 

 upon mats and exposed to the sun's rays until per- 

 fectly dry, when the husk is broken with large heavy 

 rollers made either of wood or of stone. The cof- 

 fee thus cleared of its husk is again dried tho- 

 roughly in the sun, that it may not be liable to heat 

 when packed for shipment. 



The method employed in the West-Indies differs 

 from this. Negroes are set to gather such of the 

 berries as are sufficiently ripe, and for this purpose 

 are provided each with a canvas bag having an 

 iron ring or hoop at its mouth to keep it always dis- 

 tended, and this bag is slung round the neck so as 

 ^to leave both hands at liberty. As often as this bag 

 is filled, the contents are transferred to a large basket 

 placed conveniently for the purpose. When the 

 trees are in full-bearing, an industrious man will 

 pick three bushels in a day. If more are gathered, 

 proper care can hardly be exercised in selecting only 

 the berries that are ripe. It is the usual calculation, 

 that each bushel of ripe berries will yield ten pounds 

 weight of merchantable coffee. 



In curing coffee it is sometimes usual to expose 

 the berries to the sun's rays in layers, five or six 

 inches deep, on a platform. By this means the pulp 

 ferments in a few days, and having thus thrown off 

 a strong acidulous moisture, dries gradually during 

 about three weeks : the husks are afterwards sepa- 

 rated from the seeds in a mill. Other planters re- 

 move the pulp from the seeds as soon as the berries 

 are gathered. The pulping mill used for this pur- 



