FERMENTING AND DRYING. 9.-^ 



by water into the tanks, which must also be so situated 

 that the coffee will always advance by the aid of running 

 water and may finally be conveniently conveyed to the 

 drying ground, while the water and refuse run off. The 

 amount of cistern accommodation necessary for a planta- 

 tion may be based on the allowance of one cubic foot for 

 each bushel of berries picked in one day. The tanks are 

 seldom less than three in number — two receiving cisterns, 

 each large enough for the greatest possible daily picking 

 and a third for washing the parchment, nearly as large 

 superficially, as the two others combined, that is, the 

 " washing " tanks from twelve to fifteen feet long, two 

 feet deep and separated by a causeway three and one- 

 half feet wide, and the " fermenting " tanks eight 

 by eighteen feet long and two and one-half feet 

 deep. These tanks are usually made of brick-work, 

 lined with cement or asphalt, but wood is much better 

 because less cold, but all should have a slight incline in 

 order to assist the drainage. The receiving tanks are 

 provided at the lowest corner with a good-sized outlet, 

 fitted with a plug and with a movable sieve of perforated 

 zinc or woven-wire, fine enough to keep back the coffee 

 when draining off the water, but not so fine as to choke 

 with saccharine scum ; the receiving cisterns being used 

 alternately. All the coffee pulped in one day is allowed 

 to remain in the receiving cistern until a slight fermenta- 

 tion has set in ; this occurs in from twelve to eighteen 

 hours in mild weather, but in cold weather it may take 

 from thirty to forty hours and even more. There are 

 two ways of conducting fermentation — the dry and the 

 wet — the former consists in allowing the berries to be 

 without water, the bottom of the tank being perforated 

 so as to draw off the liquid, but by the latter process the 

 tank remains full of water. The dry system, however, is 



