100 COFFEE. 



see p. 99), a large circular machine in which heavy rollers are 

 constantly revolved on a bed of coffee, giving sufficient pressure 

 to break and detach the "parchment," or thin outer covering, 

 without crushing the bean. It is then run through "fanning- 

 mills," which separate the bean from the parchment, dust, and 

 trash ; and the beans are separated into different sizes by run- 

 ning them through a series of screens, the first of which allows 

 the pea-berry and the smaller and more imperfect kernels to 

 drop through, the second separating the next larger size, while 

 the third receives the larger and more perfect beans, known as 

 "ISTo. 1." The next smaller size is known as "No. -2," and 

 the black, trashy, and imperfect berries as " triage." After- the 

 different kinds have been thus approximately separated by machin- 

 ery, they are sent to the " picking-room," where a vast number 

 of women and children are employed in carefully picking and 

 sorting the different grades ; indeed it may be said that each 

 individual coffee-bean passes through the fingers of these pickers. 

 Of course this care in manipulation results in clean, perfect grades 

 of coffee, and the grades " No. 1 " and " No. 2 Plantation Ceylon " 

 are as well defined in the trade as the terms " granulated " and 

 " A " sugars are among grocers in the United States. The pea- 

 berry, or male berry, is here also made into a separate grade, as 

 in Java, and usually commands a sHghtly higher price than the 

 No. 1, although this depends much upon the demand, and at 

 times it sells for the same price. 



The prospects of Ceylon, as a coffee-producing country, may 

 perhaps be well summed up in the words of Mr. Simmonds in his 

 book on " Tropical Agriculture : " 



" It would seem that, if the problem is solved of sufficiently 

 maintaining, by manure and proper cultivation, the bulk of the 

 present estates, so as to continue an average yield, there are re- 

 sources in Ceylon which ought to carry the crop eventually to 

 nearly double the present export of coffee. It wiU, however, be 

 a long time before that result can be realized, if it ever comes, 

 but in 1880, there ought to be crops averaging 1,500,000 cwts. of 

 coffee, plantation and native, to deal with." 



The export in 1880, was 669,614 cwts., showing that the ene- 



