Nov. ], 1899.] THE TEOPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
337 
THE IMPROVEMENT OF COFFEE.— I. 
{By a Planter.) 
It was recently shown that a comparison of the 
prices given in the Public Sales List of the bulk 
of Costa Kica, Mocha, Santos and East India 
coffees, sold inLondonin the first half of this year 
did not support the contention that Bast India 
coffee has deteriorated as compared with its rivals. 
It has, however, been urged that such a conclusion 
cannot be relied on, as, thought East India may 
produce a few very fancy sorts, yet brokers are of 
opinion that the bulk has deteriorated, and is being 
ousted by Central Amarica coffee of a cheaper and 
better quality. The reply is obvious. The com- 
parison was made on the prices realised for every 
class of coffee and not for fancy sorts only. The 
valns of an article is the price it will fetch at 
public sale, and its comparative value is determined 
by the ratio of that price to that of its rivals. No 
amount of private opinion can outweigh the judg- 
ment of the public as shown by the price. Further, 
it was shown that brokers had just the same 
opinions as to deterioration of East India coffee, 
and the competition of Central America, in 1885 
as now, yet by 1887, when prices had risen, 
these complanints had ceased. It was allowed that 
now, as in 1885, the sample may have been poorer 
than usual ; but the point insisted on was that this 
is no proof of permanent deterioration. lu 1885, 
eight samples of Wynaad A. cofiee, selected by a 
Committee < f the Association as representative of 
the various kinds of coffee grown in the District, 
sold as follows: — 50s, ; four samples 56s. to 57-6 
61s. ; 64s. to 65s, ; 69s. Gd. These prices are 10s ; 
to 20s- below the prices ruling in the first half of 
this year, but are on about the level of present 
quotations. The sample which fetched 57s. 6d. 
sold in 1886 for 76s. to 79s. 6d. and in 1887 for 963. 
to ' 106s. 6cZ. The improvement was mainly due to 
a better market, and possibly in some degree to 
more favourable seasons, or to greater care in culti- 
vation and curing; but the fact remains that it took 
place, and there is no reason why a similar im- 
provement should not take place in the course of 
another two years. As to Central American com- 
petition, only this year compilers of coffe statistics 
have shown that, while the total crops of all other 
countries have not increased in the last 25 years, 
Brazil crops have increased 3i 0 per cent, in that 
time, and over 50 per cent, in the last three years. 
These compilers have drawn attention to what has 
been an axiom in the coffee trade for the last 40 
years, that it is the size of the Brazil crops which 
determines the price of all kinds of coffee throughout 
the world. In view of the fact that steps are being 
taken to raise Brazilian exchange, while no very, 
efiicacious steps are being taken in Central America, 
it is most important that we should keep clearly 
before us, that it is the over-production of Brazil 
which is the dominant factor in depressing prices. 
And we may take comfort from the reports in local 
papers that coffee is unremunerative both in Brazil 
and Centeral America at present prices in spite of 
low exchange. 
Still, as in 1885 East India planters spared no 
pains to improve their sample, so now it is no less 
Incumbent on them to do all they can to that end 
and it is proposed to consider in the light of xjraotical 
experience the numerous remedies' which have been 
so freely offered. Most of these are suggestions for 
Improving the appearance of the beau by the use 
of machinery adopted in Centeral America. This 
consists of improved pulpers, washing machines, 
drying machines and polishers. Some time ago letters 
appeared in the Madras Mail stating that planters 
in South India used out-of-date pulpers, and, when 
these got out . of order, the only remedy ap- 
plied was to set them closer and cut the beans. 
There may have been instances of such careless, 
curing, but the remedy is patent. In every planting 
district there are men capable of pulping coffee with 
emy pulper iu Yogue fot the last 20 'yQ&xs, so that 
it is not possible on a careful inspection of the wet 
parchment to find a cut bean. Such men are quite 
capable, and constantly in the habit, of repairing 
their pulpers when they get out of order. Hull and 
Sabonnia diere, in their books on coffee planting 
mention that Ceylon planters allowed only one-half 
per cent, for the cut beans. It is, to say the least 
doubtful, if Centeral American planters can beat 
this more especially as their pulpers were introduced 
by manufacturers who had gained their experience 
in making for Ceylon and Indian planters. The 
idea that wooden pegs bruise and cut less than copper 
or brass shows a very feeble conception of the 
principles of pulping. For one of the best pulpers 
has sharpened steel edges to catch and remove 
the pulp and yet will not show a cut or bruised 
bean. Once it is possible to bruise the bean, a wooden 
pen will do it as well as any other instrument. 
The washing machines require puled parchment to 
be fermented, as in South India, before the mucil- 
age can be removed, and it is difficult to see what 
advantage washing in a closed box with reveling 
paddles can have over washing in an open cistern. 
Still, any one who likes to try it can get a 
machine from Mesrs. John Gordon and Co. for £18 
f. o. b. in London. The peculiar advantage of the 
Central American system of cui'ing is said, however, 
to lie in the method of drying parchment in re- 
veling cylinders through which hot air is driven. It 
is argued on the analogy of tea, the delicate colour of 
which is destroyed by exposure to the sun, that the 
colour of coffee is spoilt by this same agency. 
A Ceylon planter has recently recomended that 
coffee, spread very thinly, should only be exposed to 
the sun for six hours, and then be spread on a rea- 
pered floor in the store. If this plan is adopted, it 
would require enormous storage room, something on 
the principle of a tea withering house, but on a 
larger scale, as coffee would take longer to dry than 
tea to wither. But the principle seems to differ little 
from that of the experiment, tried in Wynaad and 
Coorg in 1885 86, of drying on tables over which a 
pandal of arrowroot leaves, or coir matting, was 
stretched, at a height of some 6 feet, to keep off the 
direct rays of the sun. At first, it was thought 
this drying under shade improved the colour very 
much ; but the Wynaad Committee, after repeated 
experiments and reference to London experts, arrived 
at the conclusion that no improvement in colour 
could be relied on from shade driving, and it was 
apt to produce a mottled sample, i.e., mixed with 
faded or fading berries, probably due to uneven 
drying. It was found that the coffee of several es- 
tates so treated which fetched higher prices one year 
fetched lower the next, and lota dried in the shade 
and in the sun on the same estate and sold simul- 
taneously, showed no diffecrence in price, or a dif- 
ference in favour of the sun dried. In a couple of 
years shade-drying was abandoned in both Wynaad 
and Coorg. The Central American system would of 
course avoid all danger of uneven drying, and, in 
view of the extreme importance of improving the 
sample, it would be well worth trying the experiment, 
A machine which will dry 500 lb. wet parchment in 
24 hours, and can be worked by hand or power, can 
be obtained from Messrs. John Gordon & Co. for £'56 
f. o. b. London. This might be used on the estate 
or the coffee dried as little in the sun on the 
estate as possible and despatched to the coast for 
complete drying in the machine. It would be better 
to have a couple of machines, one on an estate and 
one on the coast, which would not cost over £130. 
It should be easy to arrange for any District to 
defray this cost. But it would not be fair to call 
on Agents to go to any great expense in this matter, 
willing as they are to adopt new machines of approved 
efficacy, until it had been conclusively proved that 
the Central American system shows a very decided 
improvement in the appearance of the bean over 
sun-dried coffee. For we are met, at the outset, 
with the objection that all East India coffee, some 
of it fetching the highest price in the world, both 
thia year and for the last 50 years, has been drie^ 
