126 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ave., 1898. 
season very well. With regard to the hulling, I have to thank Mr. McLean 
for his courtesy in sending to me catalogues of hulling machinery. The more 
expensive ones would have suited me, but I had not the area for such machines. 
The smaller machines I did not think much of. I know something of 
machinery, and know what small machines mean. You will understand that 
coffee must be pulped, fermented, and dried, the fermenting and drying being 
technically known as the drying. In this I had something to learn, and I had 
no one to teach me anything at all. The Department could only give me 
matter that had been written for other countries. I did get a book from 
Ceylon, and although I now see it must have been antiquated, yet I did get a 
good many hints from it. My method now is to pulp, and put the pulped 
berries into a large wooden barrel cut in halves. J had also a wine vat that 
I used. Iput the pulped berries into the receptacle, and generally the 
fermenting takes from thirty to thirty-six hours, it depending upon the 
temperature. If the thermometer ranges from about 75 to 80, the berry 
ferments very readily in from about twenty-four to thirty-six hours. [ 
know now how the viscid matter which lies between the skins is disposed 
of. Carefully wash and get the parchment clean. Now, I had a difficulty 
when I arrived at this stage. 1 had read of these barbecues, and 
saw they were most expensive things, and I had not the quantity 
as to justify me in incurring that expense. I levelled off a piece of land, 
covered it with cotton sheets, and put the parchment on these. This would 
not do. I could only dry from the top, and the process was not quick enough. 
IT then built rough tables—drove stakes into the ground, nailed transomes 
across them, and in the opposite direction nailed small battens. On these I spread 
the sheets, and the coffee on the sheets. ‘This did very well, but in the fourth 
year I was better prepared. I made a great number of trays of 38-inch battens 
and sheets of perforated zine 7 feet by 3 feet. These latter I cut exactly in 
the middle, and made frames of the battens just large enough to take one of 
the half sheets of zinc. I secured the zinc to the battens by means of smaller 
fillets and sticking into them a strong tough bar of wood to prevent a sag in 
the zinc. Then I made tables again, the sticks supporting which I drove far 
into the ground, about 2 or 3 feet, and laid the trays on these. These did 
splendidly. So far as it goes, I think natural sun-drying is perfect. Mr. 
Hepburn, I see by the Agricultural Journal, has an idea of a rake for turning 
the parchment over, but | have found that our hands will turn it well and 
quickly enough. Now, I had a difficulty in knowing when the parchment was 
sufficiently dried. Somie times I overdried, the result being that the berry lost 
its shape. Then I went to the other extreme, and removed the berry before it 
was properly dry. In this case it would not harden, although it did not deterio- 
tate. Hyentually I found out that it changes colour slowly from greenish-grey 
to a slaty-blue, and I found as long as I could see through the horny outer 
covering that it was not dry enough, so I watched for that change. Before 
the berry lost its shape I bagged it. I have some berry bagged two years ago, 
and I fancy it is better now than what it was then. Now about labour, and 
that is a great point. My quiver is full, and I havea big little family. When 
it comes to picking, with the assistance of a few children from round about I 
can slip through the job very well indeed. Children are by far the best 
pickers. I do not think a coloured man will ever make a good coffee-picker. 
I do not know anything about the Tamils, and how much they can pick in a 
day, but I have tested myself. I took the coffee at its very best at the first 
picking, and when the trees were loaded. I set to work as soon as I could see, 
and I picked for all I knew until breakfast. After that meal I came out again 
and worked till midday. After dinner I picked the rest of the day. All day 
Thad picked my best, and had 110 lb. of cherry asa result. That is not far 
off two bushels. It is said a Tamil can pick 23 bushels per day; but if he 
does, then an overseer will have to go behind him. I thoroughly picked the 
trees, and left nothing behind that I could see or reach. What I did on 
that day, however, cannot be taken as fair data to go upon, as I do not think 
any white man would work as I did and get the same result. What it cost me 
