65 



matting ; being rather cheap and durable, this material an- 

 swers the purpose remarkably well. The side walls of the 

 curing-house are constructed in the manner of the country, 

 viz. of wattled work filled in with clay and smoothed over so 

 as to be air-tight. 



To derive the full benefit of natural heat, the roof is 

 covered with felt or with sheet-iron, so that in fine weather 

 the temperature of the air in the upper floor is raised consi- 

 derably by contact with the hot roof, and its capacity for 

 absorbing moisture much increased, preparatory to its being 

 drawn down through the mass of coffee in the upper floor. 

 Even in the cool climate of the district of Upper Hewahette, 

 at an elevation of 4500 feet, in a fine day the temperature of 

 the air under a felt roof is 120 when the fans are not work- 

 ing, so that a great drying power is thus made available at 

 no expense. 



The lower floor, on the other hand, is adapted for the 

 application of artificial heat for the purpose of evaporating 

 the surface water from each separate batch of coffee as it is 

 taken from the washing cisterns preparatory to its being de- 

 posited in the upper floor. In wet weather this is essential, 

 for the atmospheric air being then saturated with moisture, 

 no drying can take place until its capacity for absorbing 

 moisture is increased by an increase of temperature. ' One 

 other reason for adopting this arrangement is, that when the 

 coffee is first taken wet from the washing cisterns the inter- 

 stices of the beans are more or less occupied with water, and 

 thus present a medium less pervious to air than is the case 

 when the surface water has been dried off". Consequently it 

 is desirable that, until this has been done, the depth of the 

 coffee should not exceed six inches, and, to be equal to every 

 emergency, the heating power ought to be sufficient in the 

 wettest weather to evaporate the surface water from the pro- 

 duce of a day's picking (within twenty-four hours), so as to 



