Report oF Society’s MEETINGS. 389 
crude and primitive state. In order to obtain a commer- 
cial opinion upon the various sorts of coffee, | seleé&ted 
two of the best of the Arabian and Liberian samples 
and forwarded them to Messrs. Lewis and Peat, the well- 
known. Produce Brokers in Mincing Lane. I enclose 
their report. Considering the great fall in prices recently, 
this is a very promising statement. It is admitted 
that the coffee itself is good, but it has been so badly 
prepared that it has lost nearly one-half its value. You 
will notice that if the coffee had been properly prepared 
the market value would have been from 60/ to 80/ per 
cwt, 
The suggestion in regard to shipping coffee to this 
country in parchment is one that should receive serious 
attention. You will find plenty of information on the 
subjeét in the Kew Bulletin. See June, 1893 p. 128. I 
enclose one on Liberian coffee herewith. When parch- 
ment coffee* is cleaned in London, it costs only about 
2/6 per cwt. This is much less than the cost of cleaning 
by hand and the produét is of much greater value, Libe- 
rian coffee is not so readily cleaned; but it can be done. 
It would be of great service to those engaged in coffee 
growing to let this be widely known, 
All that really need be done in the Colony is to pulp 
the coffee. This is a simple process and sevetal good 
machines are available to be worked by hand or by 
_power. Particulars ofsuitable machines as used in Jamaica 
could be obtained from Fawcett. 
The suggestion made by Messrs. Lewis and Peat in 
regard to Cacao is an important one, Cacao was very 
* I send a sample of parchment coffee in a separate packet by this 
Mail, 
3D2 
