11 COFFEE 109 



much according to the kind of coftee and the condition of the 

 cuhivation. 



Winnowing. — In order to remove the broken parchment 

 and silver skin from the beans ofter the hulHng process is 

 eftected, the whole is passed through a winnowing mill — Thewmnow- 

 which consists of a fan made of four plates turned rapidly '"^ "^' * 

 by a handle, whereby the wind is made to pass through the 

 coffee and the chaff, which fall gradually through a slit 

 in the hopper. The coffee, being heavy, falls into a re- 

 ceptacle at the bottom, and the chaff is carried away by the 



Dry Berry. — Sometimes the coffee berries, instead of 

 being pulped, are dried whole by being spread out on plat- 

 forms exposed to the full rays of the sun. The drying of the 

 berries in this way takes three or four times as long as the 

 drying of parchment coffee. When perfectly dry, the berries 

 are hulled and winnowed in the manner first described, but 

 the process is more troublesome and difficult than when the Drying the 



berries pro- 



pulp has been removed. It is said, though, that coffee pre- duces better 

 pared in this way is heavier and of a finer quality, and some ^^ 

 planters recommend that the method should be generally 

 adopted. There is a firm in London that receives the coffee 

 in dry berry and prepares it for the market at a cost of about 

 half-a-crown per hundred-weight, but the extra expense in 

 regard to the freight may be regarded as a drawback to the 

 general adoption of the system. 



