PREPARATION OF THE COFFEE-BEAN 127 



of air through the heated tubes which give it the required tem- 

 perature. Some drying-machines release seventy per cent of the 

 moisture from tin baskets containing two hundred and fifty pounds 

 of coffee in twenty minutes. These efficient machines have the 

 basket of coffee secured about the shaft near the pulleys which rotate 

 at a minimum velocity of seven hundred revolutions per minute. 

 The beans are removed from the basket at the bottom. Well-dried 

 coffee may be stored in the parchment if desired. To remove the 

 parchment, the beans are passed through a shelling-machine which con- 

 sists of a metal, grooved cylinder which rotates within an adjustable, 

 metal and grooved covering. The beans, passing between the cylin- 

 der walls and the surface-covering, are rid of their parchments by 

 friction. The process is a rapid one. The beans are then polished 

 and sized. Separating machines readily manipulate one thousand 

 pounds a day. The beans are then packed in bags containing sixty 

 kilogrammes each, which are labelled according to the grade and 

 are stored in dry, well-ventilated, and non-odorous warehouses, as 

 coffee is readily impregnated with foreign odors. 



Sometimes coffee is prepared from the dry state of the berries, in 

 which case the dried pulp and parchment are removed at the same 

 time and sizing follows immediately. This dry method operation 

 is easier, but the product deteriorates in quality and price because 

 the fermentation, which occurs when the berries are dried in the 

 sun, affects their flavor. Moreover, the hulling-machine breaks and 

 scratches the bean when submitted to this process in the dry state. 

 In spite of an inferior product, this is the method used by small 

 and primitive planters. In the dry process, no washing or pulping 

 is necessary. The entire fruit is dried on prepared courts as ordi- 

 nary parchment coffee. Desiccating layers are only two to three centi- 

 meters thick. The winnowing-process is longer; but otherwise the 

 process is precisely as the outline indicated above for the Wet 

 Manipulation of coffee. 



§b. TREATMENT BY WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS 



( I ) United States : — Raw coffee, as received in large bags by the 

 wholesale distributors, is shovelled into a separating-machine. The 

 perforated shelves of the separator are submitted to constant agita- 

 tion which results in the division of the coffee-beans into uniform 



