PEEPAEATIOlf OF COFFEE FOE MAEKET. 9 



rice. From want of care in tlie harvesting of the fruit, and 

 the use of somewhat primitive methods of preparation, the native 

 coffee lacks " style," and contains more or less damaged beans. In 

 consequence of this the new method of preparation is rapidly grow- 

 ing in favor, although there are many coffee-drinkers who main- 

 tain that coffee produced by the old method is superior in flavor. 



The new method, sometimes termed the " West India prepara- 

 tion," seeks the removal of the skin and pulp by maceration in 

 water. On large Brazilian plantations the berries are carried to 

 a large vat, fi-om the bottom of which the heavier berries are 

 drawn off by a pipe to the pulping-machine (despolpador), the 

 lighter or worthless berries being carried off by the retreating 

 water. This is also the plan adopted on the best plantations in 

 Venezuela and Ceylon. 



The pulping process is best accomplished as soon after the ber- 

 ries are gathered as is possible. On the opposite page will be found 

 an illustration showing the working of a pulping-machine upon a 

 plantation in Brazil. It is a simple contrivance, consisting of an 

 iron cylinder, set with teeth, and covered on one»side by a curved 

 sheet of metal, which it strikes as it revolves. A stream of water 

 carries the berries to the cylinder, where they are crushed between 

 it and the cover, the operation loosening the pulp. The macer- 

 ated berries are then conveyed to a vat some distance off, the water 

 being kept agitated by a revolving wheel, and serving to remove 

 the loosened pulp, which is carried away by the waste water, the 

 seeds sinking to the bottom of the vat, from which they are taken 

 to a strainer, which drains off the water, leaving them ready for 

 the next operation. 



A variety of machines are used, and the process of conveying 

 the berries to and from the pulper is more or less elaborate. In 

 Oeylon the pulpers are of two kinds, the pulping surface of one 

 being a cylinder, and that of the other a disk. The former are 

 large, and the most expensive, the latter small, cheap, and port- 

 able, thus bringing them into favor upon estates lying far in the 

 interior. The disk pulpers are largely used in Java and on the 

 coast of India. 



Messrs. "Walker Brothers, of London, who are large manufac- 

 turers of pulpers, say : .^ 



