10 



Curing. — I have seen advertisements of special pulpers made in Ceylon 

 for Liberian Coffee, and have no doubt that they are as effective as they 

 are represented. Any one growing a quantity of this coffee would have to 

 employ machinery. 



I have tried experiments on a small scale with my cherry, and found 

 that it was no use to pass the stuff through an ordinary disc pulper (set 

 of course very wide,) because the husk never (at this" elevation) gets soft 

 enough to squeeze out below the chop but rolls up into a hard ball and 

 comes out with the parchment in front ; aud I found that when the chop 

 was set wide enough to allow the husk to pass, the bean went with it. 

 Moreover the work was so hard that four coolies were completely tired 

 out in pulping two bushels. Then I found that the simplest way of getting 

 at the parchment was to put it up in heaps in the pulping house to rot. 

 This may seem barbarous, but the colour of the clean coffee so treated was 

 quite as good as some treated in the ordinary way, indeed the parchment 

 envelope of the bean is so thick and strong that it completely protects it 

 from injury from heating. Moreover this kind of coffee will carry nothing 

 but a dead whitey-green colour no matter how the curing may be done. 

 If allowed to dry in cherry some heavy peeler might perhaps break it up, 

 but it seems to me as hard and tough as the very best road metal and 

 I much doubt whether a coffee curing firm would undertake it on the 

 usual terms. As regards the drinking qualities of this variety, I can safely 

 say that no one who had not previously been told would know that he was 

 not drinking the pucka article, the same quantity of powder goes further 

 and I cannot notice any inferiority of quality. Unsuspecting guests have 

 often said "May I have another cup of this excellent coffee?" and they 

 usually look somewhat surprised when told what it was. If you try to sell 

 it in the bazaar whole and clean (looking something like date stones in 

 shops) natives decline to buy it. "This one kind bad imitation coffee" 

 they will say, but if you smash it up and mix a little dirt with it they 

 will take it readily, and never find out the difference. 



Planting. — Owing to the seedling throwing out a strong, deep, tap root, 

 something like that of a jack tree, I am inclined to think that when a 

 plantation has to be made it would be better to have the pits made ready 

 by May, and then to put one or more seeds in each pit as early in the 

 south-west monsoon as possible, so that the seedlings may get established 

 before the end of the north-east monsoon in December. But if not grown 

 to any great size they can be lifted with a little special care from nurseries 

 in the ordinary way. Considering the fact that Liberian coffee does not 

 come into bearing till two or three years after the other, it may probably 

 be a wise plan for one going in for its cultivation to pit his clearing 4 by 

 4 and to plant Arabica, afterwards putting in the giant kind down every 

 other row, making them thus 8 by 8. The Liberian is much too robust to 

 take any notice of its little friend, while by the time it has come into 

 bearing you may safely assume that the Arabica has given what it can in 

 maiden crops, and unless heavily manured has already made arrangements 

 for returning to a better world where there is no fuDgus. 



The Kew Bulletin for November, 1892, contained the following ac- 

 count by Mr. T. H. Hill, giving actual figures of results obtained : — 



The more important plantations yielding regular crops of Liberian Coffee 

 are established in Java and in the Straits Settlements. In the latter the 

 yield per acre in full bearing is given as ranging from 91 cwts. to 11 \ cwts. 

 per acre. Placing the price of Liberian coffee as low as 90s. per cwt., this 

 would show a gross return of from .£42 to £52 per acre. This is a higher 

 return than is obtained from almost any plantations of Arabian coffee. 



