MANUAL OF THE NiL\GlRI DISTRICT. 499 



building would scarcely answer except in the case of a small estate CII. XXViir. 

 of 60 or 70 acres, or where there is always an abundant supply Cofi-ek 

 of bandies or bullocks to convey away the coffee as soon as it Cultivaxion. 

 is ready. Some build their pulper-houses and stores entirely 

 of woodj with wooden vats or cisterns, whilst others employ brick 

 and cliunam or Portland cement ; but both are open to objection ; 

 the wooden cisterns shrink, I'ot, and are soon destroyed by wbite- 

 ants so as to need renewing every second or third year, and 

 the cement or cliunam ones, though painted with tar, soon wash 

 and wear away, A good and really permanent material botb for 

 pulper cisterns and barbacues has still to be found, but it has 

 occurred to me that this material may perhaps be found in the 

 liquid flint with which the floor of the Bombay Custom-house 

 is paved ; unless I have been misinformed, no planter has yet 

 tried this. The following seems to me about the best kind of 

 store to build if the combination pulper-house and store is not 

 approved of. Stone and mud walls with large barred windows, 

 to be closed if necessary with shutters ; stone pillars about 3 

 feet high on which stout beams are placed, and on these rafters, 

 over which are stretched rolls of double coir matting. This will 

 ensure a thorough current of air, which will prevent the parch- 

 ment coffee from getting heated and musty. In Ceylon, where 

 they have rain almost throughout the crop season. Clerihew's 

 apparatus for driving a heated current of air through the coffee 

 by means of a fan is generally used, but, as far as I know, this 

 has not been introduced into India, and unless the season here is 

 unusually wet, as was the case in 1862, this is scarcely required. 



For my part I prefer to use both, as I think that coffee dries — bartacuea 

 sooner on the old drying tables covered with coir matting, so I ami drymg 

 leave my coffee on the drying tables to drain for a day or two, 

 and then leave it to dry on the barbacues two or three days 

 longer. The latter are usually made of brick covered with 

 chunam and painted with a composition of tar and resin, but if 

 ever so carefully made they soon crack and require to be re-done, 

 and are expensive and not so lasting as they should be, consider- 

 ing their cost. My drying tables are made of sawn timber, which 

 I take to pieces regularly every year after crop is over and store 

 away in my store or pulper-house. Were the cement made by 

 General Morgan not so expensive, this would, I think, be the best 

 material for barbacues. 



Cattle sheds should be dispersed about the plantation so as to —cattle- 

 save carriage as much as possible, and should be erected on sites ^heds. 

 suited either for carriage by bandies or despatch of the manure 

 by wire ropes, which latter are coming into general favour. A 

 good rough but strong and lasting cattle-shed may be made 



