36 



action of the sun on platforms laid with tiles, until they are 

 perfectly dried, and from this they are, during crop time, 

 spread on the wooden floors of a building called a logie, to 

 the depth, in a heavy crop, of 12 to 18 inches. Whilst thus 

 spread, great attention is necessary to prevent the coffee 

 getting heated and its colour destroyed, by constantly turn- 

 ing it up, and by the use of some dry lime or ashes sprinkled 

 over it. After this the beans are subjected to the operation 

 of what is called a stamping mill, which separates the parch- 

 ment husk from the beans. This stamping mill is merely 

 two large solid wheels fixed on each end of a beam on an axle, 

 and worked by mules moving round in a circle the wooden 

 wheels working in a circular trough filled with the coffee 

 beans. After this the whole are submitted to the action of a 

 winnowing machine, which separates the chaff from the 

 beans, and subsequently the beans are passed through copper 

 sieves to separate the perfect from the broken coffee, and 

 finally handpicked and put into bags or casks for shipment. 



BRITISH GUIANA. Coffee was for a length of time almost 

 the only staple of Berbice and Demerara, but the cultivation 

 of the sugar-cane has been substituted for it. The quantity 

 of coffee, the produce of British Guiana, exported in 1830 

 was, 9,472,756 Ibs. ; in 1840, 3,357,300 Ibs. ; in 1849, 

 100.550 Ibs. ; and in 1850, 30,000 Ibs. ; since which it has 

 almost ceased to be exported, scarcely sufficient being pro- 

 duced to supply the v demand in the colony. 



At one time there were about two hundred coffee planta- 

 tions in the small island of DOMINICA, and four to five million 

 of pounds of coffee were exported annually to Great Britain. 



PORTO Rico. In proportion to its extent, this island 

 is twice as productive as Cuba, and the quality of its coffee 

 and other produce is of the highest class. There were, in 

 1862, fifty-three coffee plantations on the island, producing 

 about 100,000 cwt. of coffee. The exports of coffee were, in 



