178 COFFEE: ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



probably take off the parchment as well as the 

 pulp. The greatest patience will be required, as 

 the same machinery as was used the preceding 

 year will now be unable to pulp more than one- 

 third of the quantity." 



From the pulper the Coffee beans are delivered 

 into soaking cisterns, the pulp itself passing away 

 into the mill race, or into a pit for manure. 

 This removes with^fermentat'ion any remains of 

 pulp still adhering, and also partly^ clears the beans 

 of all matter which hangs about the second skin 

 or parchment. Thence it goes into " washers," 

 where a further cleansing process is thoroughly 

 effected by means of stirrers or agitators, which 

 reject npj _pj^y_thej_jrru^ilage, but any remaining 

 pieces of pulp, and clear away the__light unsound 

 Coffe^~^triouTTamage_tg_the .beans^ The use of 

 the ordinary rake in the cisterns not unfrequently 

 causes breakage of the parchment skin, which is 

 to be avoided before exposing the beans to dry. 

 The Coffee bean, if thus damaged,- becomes, white, 

 and hajsjx^_bei_picked out by hand. When the 

 washing is completed, on raising a small sluice, 

 the seed is discharged on to the draining slope 

 or platform, and is thence passed to the drying 

 ground. It should not dry too quickly, but on a 

 fairly hot day it is spread some two or three 

 inches deep on the hard mat-covered surface of 

 the^ barbecues," or drying plots, and constantly 

 turned b^Baf^fobted coolies, who " scuffle " it 



