(JO COi'FEE. 



The picking should take place under proper superintendence. 

 tk' trcr.s be picked row by row, and care taken that each berry is 

 plucked oft* separately, and not a heap together, by which the 

 lives arc torn and the first offshoots prevented. In picking high 

 trees, light ladders should be used, made out of two or three 

 bamboos tied together. 



Customary preparation of the lerry in the pulp. When the 

 coffee is picked and brought into the village, it is piled up in a 

 heap in the open air, and left in that manner for twenty-four 

 hours. Thus heaped up it gets warm, and this creates a certain 

 fermentation of the juice which is in the berry. That fermenta- 

 tion promotes the drying and loosens the silvery pellicle which is 

 attached to JJhe bean inside the parchment, and which cannot be 

 entirely got rid of in any other way. Coffee which still retains 

 that pellicle is called in trade "grey coffee," and is lower priced 

 than good clean sorts. After the fermentation, the coffee is spread 

 out in rather thick layers, and turned over twice a day. If it 

 rains during this first spreading out, the coffee does not require 

 to be sheltered, as the washing causes the juicy substance to eva- 

 porate, and this accelerates the drying afterwards. 



In proportion as the coffee becomes dryer, the thickness of the 

 layer must be reduced, and the turning over must be more frequent 

 till the coffee is quite dry outside and the pulp has become hard. 



Then the coffee is laid out on frying floors, which can be easily 

 and speedily covered in rainy or (lamp weather, and is dried by the 

 powerful heat of the sun. 



This system of drying in the pulp requires six weeks or two 

 months, as it is advisable not to be over hasty with drying. 



When the coffee is entirely dry, it is either at once pounded or 

 placed in the stores to await that operation. In order to know if 

 the coffee be sufficiently dry, take a handful of it and shut your 

 hand close ; shake it to your ear, and listen if the beans rattle 

 freely in the pulp. Or try them by biting the berry, and see if 

 the bean and pulp are both brittle and crisp, which shows that the 

 fruit is dry enough. 



Preparationof the coffee in the parchment, or the West India system. 

 Only sound and fully ripe beans can be prepared in the AVest 

 India manner. In picking, therefore, all unripe, green, or unsound 

 beans must be taken away to dry in the pulp. As soon as the 

 coffee is brought in, it must be pulped. This operation is per- 

 formed by means of small peeling mills. These mills consist of 

 two horizontal wooden cylinders rubbing on a plank ; they are 

 covered with hoop-iron, and set in motion by a water- wheel. The 

 n >f lee is driven under the cylinder, and kept constantly moist; by 

 being turned through the mill, the pulp is so bruised that the bean 

 in the parchment falls from it into the bamboo open frame, which 

 is placed in front of the mill. The coffee is then pressed with the 

 hand, and falls through the frame into a basket, The pulp, and 

 beans not rid of the pulp, remain on the frame ; the first is cleared 

 away, the rest passes a second time into the mill, and this cpcra- 



