PEEPAEATIOlSr 0¥ COFFEE FOE MAEKET. 11 



piilp and beans are thus separated, the former being floated away 

 to the pulp-pit, to be afterw^ard used as manure. The beans, 

 along with which there is always a quantity of unpulped cherry 

 and pulp, fall into a sieve, which allows the beans to pass through 

 it nearly clear of any of the unpulped cherry and pulp, and to be 

 carried off by means of spouts to the cisterns. The unpulped 

 cherry and pulp are delivered into a well, from which they are 

 returned by an elevator into the central hopper, to be again passed 

 through the pulper along with fresh cherry. This work goes on 

 continuously till all the cheiTy picked the same day is pulped. 

 One man is generally placed to see that the supply of cherry is 

 kept up, and another to attend to the pulping. All our experi- 

 ence goes to show that regular feeding of the cherry at the hopper 

 is of the utmost importance in pulping. 



" The berry, after being divested of its pulp, is called parch- 

 ment-coffee, it being within a cover resembling thin parchment, 

 to which adheres a glutinous substance, slightly saccharine, and 

 the inner bean is again surrounded by a thin gossamer filament 

 known as the silver-skin. The Ceylon process allows the parch- 

 ment to remain in a cistern for forty-eight hours, or until the glu- 

 tinous matter is removed. After this it is subjected to repeated 

 washings with water, and then dried in the sun. It is dried sufii- 

 ciently on the estate to enable it to be conveyed to Colombo, the 

 port of shipment, and at Colombo it is more thoroughly dried, 

 and during the operation it is subjected to careful examination, 

 and all foreign substances — bits of stick, stones, mud, etc. — are 

 picked out by hand ; and then the two husks — the parchment and 

 silver-skin — are removed by a machine called a peeler. After the 

 peeler, it has still to pass through the winnower and the sizing 

 machine, the latter being a machine for the purpose of separating 

 the beans into different si^es ; and when these processes are com- 

 plete the parchment has become clean coffee, and is ready for 

 shipment. 



" Cisterns for fermenting and washing operations are usually 

 made of solid masonry, covered either with asphalt or cement. 

 The arrangements made by different planters are not all alike. 

 Some have cisterns (generally two) into which the pulped coffee is 

 received from the pulper and kept till it is fit for washing. These 



