CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 185 



one much of a mountain farm in Wales or 

 Scotland. 



October 7th. — Last night I was called out to 

 see two large snakes which had been killed by 

 one of the watchmen. One a cobra measuring 

 five feet six inches ; the other, a brown tic 

 polonga, a very beautiful snake with diamond 

 shaped marks of a darker brown. 



October 12th. — At present the store is a 

 most interesting sight : full to overflowing with 

 coffee which has come here to be pulped from 

 a neighbouring Estate, their own pulper having 

 suddenly broken down. Coffee in sacks — 

 mounds of coffee on the barbecue, coffee 

 spread in orderly layers in the drying room, 

 parchment coffee, black coffee, and prettiest of 

 all, red and green cherry, just picked and 

 brought in. I have before described a hand 

 pulper, but the one used here is worked by 

 water power, and is on a much larger scale. 

 A series of little buckets arranged like a dredge, 

 pick up the cherry and throw it into the pulper, 

 a stream of water flows over it, driving the 

 coffee into the inner recesses of the machine 

 (which I am too ignorant to describe), from 

 which it issues in two streams, one carrying the 

 bean into a receptacle from which, later on, it 

 is collected and dried, the other taking away 

 the refuse husks which are afterwards conveyed 

 to the manure stack previously described. 



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