November i, 1881.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 
THE ARTIFICIAL DRYING OF COFFEE. 
Samarang, Java, August 22ud, 1881. 
Dkar Sihs, — As you are likely to have heard, it 
being mentioned in the Siugapore papers, a, method 
for drying coffee in an artificial way was invented 
by me in the beginning of this year. My making a 
secret of this invention, which is going to make such 
a great revolution in the prospects and future of the 
coffee planting, made me have many a struggle before 
getting listened to by the planters here in Java. I, at 
last, found some who consented to see an experiment 
which greatly satisfied them all. The fact of a method 
for drying coffee, being invented was mentioned 
in all the Java newspapers and at last, in May, a 
commission was sent by the Chamber of Commerce at 
Samarang to assist at an experiment which I was 
invited to make. The reBult of that visit and the 
official report given by that commission is literally 
to be found in the circulars which I took the liberty 
to send you by this mail. 
You, being editors of the Ceylon Observer, a paper 
which takes ?o much interest in everything concern- 
ing coffee planting, made me take the liberty to send 
you some circulars, about 200, with the kind request 
to distribute them amongst the coffee planters in 
Ceylon and the principal planters in British India, 
and to mention she invention in your esteemed paper. 
I trust you will have the kindness to receive all 
letter? which the planters in Ceylon might write to 
me and to forward them to my address. 
Apologizing for the liberty I have taken, being 
unknown to you, and thanking you before hand for 
your complying with my request, I have the honour 
to be, dear sirs, yonrs obediently, T. MAANEN. 
The pamphlet, after stating the difficulties attend- 
ant on the drying of coffee in the ordinary way, 
and also the drawbacks of the Guardiola eystein, 
Bays :— 
" In order to provide in all those difficulties, I lately 
took some experiments on Pendcm estate, belonging 
to Messrsi A. M. & -F. Engelken, for drying coffee on 
an artificial way, and was fortunate enough to obtain, 
after many trials during the last season, a complete 
success. Therefore, I am now able to make you ac- 
quainted with the results of my experiments and with 
the inestimable advantages to bo obtained by my 
dryiug process. 
1. The construction is very simple and may be 
done by everyone within 4 weeks, if materials are at 
hand. 
2. No yearly repairs are wanted. 
3. No complicated machinery. 
4. The drying process can be surveyed by any 
workman. 
.'>. The quantity of wood depends on the quality 
and size, but will not exceed 5 or 6 cubic metre for 
drying 50 piculs of coffee, — any wood may be used 
and the roots of bamboo will do the best. 
G. Two or three men aro wanted for drying any 
quantity of coffee. 
7. The heat cm bo rogulated as required. 
8, The whole costs for installation will bo about 
2,000 to 2,500 guilders — £170 to £200— which may 
depend upon local prices of materials. 
!•. Bj my process about 5U to 100 piculs of dry 
ooOee, ready For shipment, may be obtained in 22 
or 21 hours at 104* to 140° Fahreuhuit (100 pir-nls 
0,200 kilogram). 
10. I he OOnee in perfectly dried by my pro 
103 
The evaporation goes on very equally and the cofft e 
is not exposed to injurious vapours or extraordinary 
hoat. The quality is not in the least affected and 
the whole is better dried than on masoned dryiug 
floors." 
After pointing out the advantages of this Bystem, 
Mr. van Maanen says :— "For an amount of £200,— 
for each estate, I am inclined to give yon every in- 
formation wanted, drawings a. s. o., on condition that 
no anc else shall profit by your knowledge of the pro- 
cess. Every information about the experiments is to 
be got, besides by myself, by the Chamber of Com- 
merce at Samarang and by Mr. A. M. Engelken at 
Pendem estate, Solo, Java." 
Then follows a report by Messrs. Engelken and Croes 
on the merits of an experiment made at Pendem 
estate with this process ; this is followed by the report 
of the Commission appointed by the Samarang Com- 
mercial, Association, which we have already published 
in the Observer. 
CEYLON, INDIAN, AND EUROPEAN OLIVES, 
AND CEYLON " WE K ALUS." 
Colombo, 12th Sept. 18S1. 
Dear Sid, — In a letter in your issue of the 9th 
instant, headed "New Products, Aloe Fibre, Castor 
Oil, and Olives," occurs this passage re-peeting the 
last named : — "I may mention that (he jungles here 
abound with the ' Varloe ' or Ceylon olive, the half- 
ripe fruit of which preserved in brine are equal to the 
Spanish. Have any of your readers tried them ?" 
This subject was discussed in the columns of the 
Ceylon i/bserver several years ago, and th it of the real 
olives one or two years ago, but perhaps it would be 
well to give a sort of final notice of the Weralu at 
least. In 1857 I examined in the British Museum 
several specimens, and a very fair figure of this plant, in 
the collection made by Paul Hermann in Ceylon in 
1670-77, and in his Musaeum Zuylanicum, a somewhat 
barbarous catalogue of the volumes containing his 
dried plants, said to have been first published in 1717, 
my copy being the 2nd edition of 1726, he refer-, to 
this plant at pp. 9, 10 and 22, and to the speci- 
mens of it in volumes 1, pp. 50 and 57, and 
2, p. 33, in every place of which the old Dutehman 
spelled the word 200 years ago as it is pronounced by 
ver has been, viz. weralu, and 
rigin of Weralugastenna, a well- 
I resided when surveying in 
Ambegamuwa in 1811. I believe that the Sinhalese 
have eaten the olive-like pulpy matter of its drupe* 
when ripe and pickled, time out of mind. Hermann 
alludes to the drupes as of the size and shape of an 
olive, and as to the pickling of them by the natives 
in 1070, he rvfersthus: — "Fructus imma'uri conliuutur, 
muria ab incolis, addito pauxillo oleo olivaruui, ad 
concitandum saporem olivispropinquiorem " ( Mu*. p. 9.) 
Burmann, Tkesaums Zeylniucun, 1737, p. 93 and 
plate 40, gives a fuller description of it, and the figure 
of the leaves and flowers gives a fair idea of the plant. 
It is the Elxocarpus No. 200 p. 92 of the Flora 
Zeylanka, of Linneus, 1747, in the appendix to which 
the description of this genus is first given >. 10, the 
meaning of which is elaia, an olivo and karpoj, a 
fruit, the fruits resembling thoso of the qliVe, hut 
otherwise far removed from it. In tho S/M-cies Planta- 
rum it was named Elaiocarpus scrratns Lin. tho 
specific name indicating the serr.it urea "n the margins 
of tho leaves. It belongs to the Lime or Linden 
family. Tiliacea.', and its wide separation from tho 
true olivo is indicated by the fact that in Tbwaites, 
Ehtttm Plant, Zeyl. tho weralu is given as order 31, and 
the cider Olcaoc.T-.Jasmiuaeca), a* No. 10 11 , although 
the soquence of the orders in this work may not 
iudicato this wide separation. Roxburgh FL Iwl., 2, 
the Sinhalese, 
hence no doub 
known place 
