Coffee Cultivation in Berbice. 277 
There was much competition among the neighbouring 
estates, as to which should make the largest crop. As soon 
as 100,000 lbs was gathered in, a flag was hoisted at the 
top of the logie, and great were the efforts to be the first 
to "hoist the flag". The people, too, shared the ex- 
citement, and it was a cheerful sight, of an afternoon, 
to witness the return of the pickers from aback ; 
bateau after bateau would be seen racing home in 
the canal, each loaded with baskets full of fresh picked 
coffee, which looked like red gooseberries. 
On reaching the buildings, the coffee was carried up 
into the loft over the pulping-mill. Here it was mea- 
sured. The coffee, as it was brought in, was poured into 
a square box which held as much green coffee as would 
yield 14 lbs. of clean coffee when divested of its pulp- 
A tally of the number of boxes was kept by an overseer, 
and each person bringing in a boxful received a ticket. 
From this upper floor the coffee was sent down a spout 
or shoot to the mill, where it was divested of its outer 
husk or pulp, which fell in one place, while the beans 
fell in another. The pulp was carried away and thrown in a 
heap, where it soon fermented, and became most offensive 
to the neighbourhood, far worse than the 'Tees nuisance". 
The beans, divested of the pulp, fell into a brick gutter, 
sloping down to the wash-pit. This was a square brick 
cistern, about 5 feet deep, into which water flowed in 
at one end and out at the other. Here the coffee was 
washed, being hauled backward and forwards by a kind 
of wooden rake. This washing cleaned the beans from 
the slimy juice adhering to them, and they were then 
taken out and spread over the " droogherie", a raised 
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