120 HISTORY OF THE [book v. 
mortars. Coffee thus cured, weighs four per cent, 
heavier than if cured without the pulp. 
The other mode is to remove the pulp immedi¬ 
ately as it comes from the tree. This is done by 
means of a pulping mill, consisting of a horizontal 
fluted roller, about eighteen inches long, and eight 
inches in diameter. This roller is turned by a crank 
or handle, and acts against a moveable breast-board, 
which being fitted close to the grooves of the roller, 
prevents the berries from passing whole. The mill 
is fed by a sloping trough, and the aperture of the 
trough, from which the berries drop into the mill, 
is regulated by a vertical sliding board. By this 
simple machine a negro will pulp a bushel in a 
minute. The pulp and the bean (in its parchment 
skin) fall promiscuously together. The whole is 
then washed in wire sieves, to separate the pulp 
from the seeds, and these are immediately spread 
open to the sun to dry. 
There prevails great difference of opinion among 
the coffee planters on the subject of these two dif¬ 
ferent methods of curing raw coffee. The latter is 
perhaps the most profitable, as being more expedi¬ 
tious; but I have no doubt that the former would 
give the best flavoured coffee, provided the fer¬ 
mentation, which always takes place when the raw 
truit is placed in heaps on the platform, could be 
prevented, which might easily be done at the ex¬ 
pense of a little more room. The blue dingy 
green, which to the American is the test oi good 
