520 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1881 
"light" coffee is most remarkable. The 1,1(58 bushels 
of sulphured coffee yielded 12£ of "light," or nearly 
2-235 per cent ; whereas the 291 bushels gave 9 — i. e., 
4-891 per cent. In other words, the light coffee from 
the unsulphured area was more than twice as much per 
cent as that from the treated coffee. 
The unsulplmred coffee, therefore, (which started with 
no disadvantage, but rather the reverse, considering that 
it was below the bungalow, on better soil, and manured 
two months earlier) ripened less crop and produced much 
more light coffee, though the outturn was superior in 
the proportion 63 : 47 per cent. 
A sample of each coffee was sent to Colombo, and 
cured separately; each sample measured 9 J bushels, and 
it will be seen that a slight difference obtains still in 
fauour of the sulphured coffee : — 
Htjnupitiya Mills. 
Colombo, 27th January 1881. 
E. — Sulphured. Memo, of Coffee ready for Shipment. 
P „ 
T „ 
to § 3 "3 U § S 
(z; o M H w K 
lb 
.. 1 .. 1st 41 
.. 1 .. 2nd 105 
.. 1 .. 3rd 69 
.. 1 .. P 20 
Cwt. qr. lb. oz. 
1 T 
1 .. 
1 .. 
9 
0 11 
0 9 
4 3 2 0 22 0 
Htjnupitiya Mills. 
Colombo, 27th January 1881. 
F. — Unsulplmred. Memo, of Coffee ready for Shipment. 
g w ^^ M aMBcc izi E-i 
ID. oz. Cwt. qr. lb. oz. 
IF .. .. 1 .. 1st 45 0 
2 „ .. .. 1 .. 2nd 100 0 
3 „ .. .. 1 .. 3rd 60 0 
P 1 .. P 22 0 
2 0 3 0 
T „ IT 11 0 
0 0 11 0 
Pieces coffee 1 1 13 
Black* brown 1 0 5 
0 0 2 2 
4 3 2 0 16 2 
As I cannot do better than make use of the accom- 
panying remarks on the above, Mr. Bois's letters are 
published with his permission: — 
Colombo, 1st March 1881. 
My Deab Mn. Ward, — I have this morning had a 
long talk with Mr. Anton with regard to the experiment 
upon the Harrow Estate, and he mentioned that you were 
somewhat puzzled with the outturn of the coffee in 
Colombo, and Mr. Symons' report thereupon. Now, I 
do not think that they are in any way unfavourable to 
the coffee (marked E) which had been treated with sul- 
phur and lime. It is true that the F unsulphured sample 
had a smaller proportion of small size ; but, on the 
other hand, the bean of E might have been of closer 
texture (and therefore of better quality) seeing that the 
outturn of clean coffee from the parchment was 4-27 
in the case of E, and only 4-39 in F. If the bean had 
been smaller and the outturn worse, I should give my 
opinion against the sulphur and lime, but in the present 
instance I am not disposed to do so. You will notice 
also that in the sample F there is a larger proportion 
of Peaberry, and although this quality is prized, it is, 
I believe, the result of impaired growth. As regards 
the colour, there was certainly a difference, but so 
slight as to be almost inappreciable. Mr. Symons was 
a little doubtful about it at lirst, and it was not until 
we had both carefully examined it in the same light 
that we came to the conclusion that there was a differ- 
ence. I should not like to say that the E mark was 
inferior, or that the slight difference in colour was suffici- 
ent to influence the price ; in fact, I do not think it 
would do so. You must take my remarks for what they 
are worth, but so far as I can judge the experiment on 
Harrow is by no means discouraging. — Yours faithfully, 
Fred. Wm. Bois. 
Colombo, 3rd March 1881. 
My Dear Mr. Ward, — I have no objection whatever 
to your using my letter if you find it desirable. 
I attach considerable importance to the difference of 
6 lb. in 2401b. parchment, as it is equal to 2 i percent. 
I also attach importance to the difference between 2\ 
per cent and 5 per cent of light coffee. — Yours truly, 
Feed. Wm. Bois. 
Besides the above reports on the samples, I sent 
marked packages of each to several lu-ms in Colombo, 
and must take this opportunity of thanking those gen- 
tlemen who took so much trouble with my samples. 
I was anxious to see if experts could detect any im- 
portant differences in the parchment, and the samples 
sent were simply marked with letters. Examples of 
the opinions given are selected as follows : — * 
(1) " I am of opinion that the Ft is slightly supe- 
rior in colour and brightness to E : it is of a brighter, 
clearer, bluish-green than E, which has a decided brownish 
tinge ; but both are extremely fine samples. The F is 
a larger coftee, but contains more triage than E, and 
the outturn is consequently worse, but equal quanti- 
ties of the bulk size were in the following propor- 
tions : — 134-8 F to 131-3 E, or 2-4 per cent in favour 
of F, which I pronounce decidedly superior, as far as 
the good coftee is concerned, to E, E being one per 
cent better than F as regards triage." 
(2) " A I is about one per cent heavier than B, and 
the beans were better in colour and fuller in size 
when peeled as compared with the parchment." 
(3) " The coffees look very similar, but the A has a 
larger proportion of " 0" size, " 1" size, and Peaberry, 
the most valuable qualities, while B has. a much 
larger proportion 0 f No. 2, the smallest size. On the 
other hand, A has a slightly larger proportion of hlacks 
and browns, but we could not tell whether this would 
be the same in a larger sample, although we may 
mention that the A showed a good many poor pick- 
ings of this description than the B in the two sam- 
ples of parchment sent down before." 
(4) " 500 cubic centimetres of A weighed nett 227-35 ; 
500 cubic centimetres of B weighed 224-35." 
(5) " Both the samples are of exceptionally good 
quality, far superior to the bulk of this season's crop, 
and the coffee appears to be almost free from dis- 
eased beans, which are now so prevalent. * * * 
The only difterence we can discover in the two sam- 
ples is that A is rather a deeper colour than B, but 
both coffees would obtain the very hightest prices of 
the day." 
(6) " The slight difference in the colour of the two 
* Each of the numbered paragraphs gives the opinion of 
an independent expert. 
t F = Unsulphured coffee ; E = sruphured. 
I A always — Unsulphured coffee ; B — sulphured. 
