preparing tbe Coffee for flDarfeet, 345 



A. Preparation of Coffee in Soconusco. Of all the operations re- 

 lating to coffee the one which in my judgment is least advanced in 

 Guatemala is its preparation for the market. There are not more than 

 four or five estates where the preparation of the fruit is systematically 

 performed and with an adequate saving of time, labor, and money. 



I have not seen any estate in which all the operations of preparing 

 the coffee are performed by machinery, that is, in which the ripe fruit 

 is thrown into a general receptacle, from which it passes to others until 

 it comes out sorted and graded, without the intervention of the hand 

 of man, as is the case with wheat and flour, in the flour mills. There 

 are estates, however, in which the operations of preparing the coffee 

 are greatly simplified, the same water-power being used for all of them. 



All the operations described below are employed in Guatemala ; for 

 in Soconusco not even the most necessary machines are used. So far 

 the estate of El Malacate only has an iron pulper, a wooden retrilla, 

 and a fan. The coffee is generally pulped on grinding stones and 

 bruised in wooden mortars. 



The preparation of coffee for the market includes the following 

 operations : 



a. Pulping. 



b. Washing. 



c. Separating the good coffee from the bad. 



d. Exposure to the sun. 



e. Shelling. 



f. Dyeing. 



g. Winnowing. 



h. Sorting the coffee. 



Each of these different operations will be treated of separately. 



a. Pulping. The coffee, when it arrives at the place where it is to 

 be prepared for the market, is deposited in a tank full of water, which 

 has a pipe leading to the pulper, into which the water, passing through 

 the pipe, gradually carries it. As a general rule these machines are 

 made of cast iron, and are almost everywhere hand motors, although 

 they might easily be moved by the water used on the plantation. 



The pulping machine removes the outer skin from the coffee and 

 separates the two beans which each fruit as a general rule contains, with 

 the exception of the kind called the pea berry, which has a single bean 

 of an elliptical shape. The hull, or pulp, as it was called when treating 

 of fertilizers, is thrown away, when it might be employed with advan- 

 tage in manuring the ground. 



Pulping machines have been in use since the time of Laborie, that 

 is, some eighty years, although they were then constructed of wood ; 

 those now in use have not changed essentially in principle. 



Mr. Sabonadiere mentions the pulping machines which have exclu- 



