chap, iv.] WEST INDIES. 
119 
usual practice in the British West Indies is as fol¬ 
lows :—• 
As soon as the berries acquire the colour of a black 
red on the trees, they are supposed to be suffici¬ 
ently ripe for picking. The negroes employed in 
this business are provided each with a canvas bag, 
with a hoop in the mouth to keep it open. It is 
hung about the neck of the picker, who empties it 
occasionally into a basket, and if he be industrious, 
he may pick three bushels in a day. But it is not 
very provident to urge him on too fast, as probably 
a great deal of unripe fruit will in that case be mix¬ 
ed with the ripe. The usual practice is to pick the 
trees at three different stages of ripeness. One 
hundred bushels in the pulp, fresh from the tree, 
will give about one thousand pounds weight of 
merchantable coffee. 
There are two methods in use of curing or dry¬ 
ing the bean : The one, is to spread the fresh 
coffee in the sun in layers about five inches deep, 
on a sloping terras, or platform of boards; with the 
pulp on the berry, which in a few days ferments, 
and discharges itself in a strong acidulous moisture, 
and in this state the coffee is left, until it is per¬ 
fectly dry, which, if the weather is favourable, it 
will be in about three weeks. The husks are after¬ 
wards separated from the seeds by a grinding mill 
hereafter to be described, or frequently by pound¬ 
ing them with pestles in troughs or large wooden 
