January 2, 1882.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
641 
PREPARATION OF COFFEE. 
In reference to the following article from the South 
of India Observer, we may mention that on most 
estates in Ceylon the weather is adverse to the final 
drying of the coffee, and casks could be obtained 
and transported only at great expense. In Java, 
curiously enough, the objection to sending coffee to a 
seaport to dried and prepared, is the paucity of avail- 
able labour at the ports :— 
The form in which coffee is put on the market has 
a good deal to do with the price of the article, and 
tlx; omission of comparatively simple and trilling op- 
erations causes a serious loss to the grower. One of 
these operations which plays an important part in the 
Tee and so on its color and form, 
The mucilaginous substance which 
must be completely washed off, and 
contcut that this operation shall be 
the pulped masses 
th 
uryin 
is the washii 
covers the b 
most growers 
pi rformed by 
in the vats 
On one estat 
great woodei 
well, but ai 
Was 
op] 
till lb 
somes completely off. 
washing done in a 
et oi rolatary brushes 
:lieve this does fairly 
;ion, known as the 
di 
;iug 
erforated 
sr. This 
an axle. 
on an incline, and the delivery 
with a gutter, out of which 
entt-rs lh<> machine through a 
r at the other end, comes out per- 
lew seconds, and is emptied into 
tlisher. The most striking 
the construction of the pestle 
husk of the coffee is broken 
irying process Roth pestles 
with a succession of oblique 
ince from each other, on the 
nuels, wherein the coffee is 
" Code 
more complete, and washes with g 
at a minimum of cost. It consists 
from 7 to 12 feet in length, siini 
sizur, but not more than 20 inche 
is fitted with a series of washers 1 
The cylindei 
end is fun 
the ct ffee, 
hopper with 
fectly chan 
a vat to receive it. The eight foot machine can clean 
lO.Ot'O pounds of coffee, per day and weighs alto- 
gether 1 000 pouuds. A one-horse power engine is 
sullich nt to work the machine, or a water wheel with 
equal convenience. The Americana have brought out 
another serviceable machine for the coffee planter, 
namely, a I fuller a 
feature of the inven 
and mortar in whic 
and pulverized aft 
and mortars are pr 
ribs, set at a propc 
surface, so us to foi 
pushed up and down, and receives a considerable 
friction, which speeds the work without injuring the 
coffee in the least: on the contrary, owing to this 
increased friction, it acquires a beautiful polish, and 
loses all that silvery pellicle which gives such au ugly 
appearance to coffees cleaned by other processes. Not 
a single grain of coffee is broken by this machine. The 
pestle is so arranged that it can only penetrate or reach 
within an inch from the bottom of the mortar. The 
Bprtart arc filled with coffee with the groatest facility, 
and by opening 'i valve at the bottom, on the outside, 
they are emptied in a few seconds, and then refilled. 
Of course, stop tho pestle of th»< mortar that is to 
be emptied ; this is easy to le-irn. In the mean- 
time, the other pestles continue their work. This is a 
Kj plain, strong machine, easily worked. It can he 
DBingrd in round or straight batteries. Tho round 
ai r. 11..;. m. nt is composed of thirteen mortars, each of 
Which will clean from 1.">H (o 21 K) pounds oi coif e 
per hour. The amount of work to be done will depend 
I on the number of mortal a a id pestles. About six 
horse power will be required, to run tho battery of 
| thirteeen mortars, and about tour horse power to run 
Die leven moitar battery. A utraight buttery of seven 
mortars and lOVOU stamps will hull ami polish 7, 'XX) 
pounds of cotfeo per day. Ik'youd an improvement 
161 
in the machinery, the principle of the coffee huller i 
not novel. It has for years been adopted as a rice- 
cleaner, chiefly to remove the husk. The cost of tranb- 
port of produce to a coffee cleaning establishment, 
the cleaning and the packing of iho coffee in bags or 
barrels, is a considerable item of estate expenditure, 
and whatever the selling price of the staple is this 
charge is always maintained at a uniform figure. With 
mechauical appliances of the kind to which we invite 
attention, every large estate will be able to clean and 
ship its coffee direct at probably a quarter of the 
cost incidental to the preparation of the bean for the 
London maiket at the present time. C. Adolphe 
Low and Co., of New York, aie the manufacturers of 
both the Washing and Hulling Machine. 
THE LONDON MARKET FOR INDIAN 
TEA. 
After a period of severe and prolonged depression 
there has certainly been a great and encouraging 
reaction in the market for Indian tea. Low prices, 
although disastrous to individual planters, have had 
the usual effect of increasing consumption, and now 
there is evidently a large and increasing class of persons 
in Britain who, having acquired a taste for the superior 
Indian tea, will insist on being supplied with it in 
preferonco to the weaker China stuff. Leaving prices 
out of I he question for the present, the comparative 
figures for deliveries and imports of Indian tea, in ten 
months of eaob of the past three years, are worthy of 
attentive consideration. In ten months euding 31st 
October 1879, the deliveries were 29.463,000 lb. against 
inports equal to only 28,177,000 lb., an excess of 
deliveries over imports of nearly 1,300,000 lb. In the 
corresponding period of lSSOthe ligures were 33,027,000 
lb. for deliveries against 32, S22, 000 lb. for imports, the 
excess of deliveries being SO.3,000 lb. In the two years up 
to 31st October, therefore, deliveries exceeded imports 
by 2, 105,000 lb. But this was as not hing to the enormous 
increase which has taken place in deliveries in tho ten 
months of the present year. The figures are : — 
Imports 32.009,000 lb. 
Deliveries 40,933,000 ,, 
Excess deliveries... 8,324,000 lb. 
So that iu the three periods deliveries exceeded imports 
by not far short of 10 i millions of pounds. No doubt a 
great deal of this huge and rapidly increased consumption 
(for "deliveries" iu the case of Indian tea mean con- 
sumption in Britain) is due to prices in the period under 
review which were tho reverse of remunerative. Prices 
iu October 18S1, however, piesented a marked and most 
encouraging contrast to tlioto which prevailed in the cor- 
responding period of 1880. Prices in October 1SSI, 
notwithstanding a market which had fallen from the 
rangoof previous rates, ran from 1/3 per lb. to " 3J, ns 
as against only 10 a d to 2;H por lb in October 1830. 
The9e are <ti'( /•<(;/'' pricef, pekoes, in the eas.' of Poovriah 
Estate, Darjceling, having actually realized 3 A\, as the 
following Inures, quoted from Marsden A Walker's 
Report, will .-how :— 
Broken Tk\s. -Eastern Assam IV Is 7«1, Larsingah 
Is 71'l. BUhnauth Co. Is 7,'d, Scottish Assam Co. Is 
'.l.Jd, Dinjan Is l»M, lUrjeelmg Co. 1 KM. M r a ret' 
Uopo Is llj.il, Koombar 2s Id, Qajildoubah 2s id. 
Dooteriah 2s v 
