s of
the beans in a sample, on close examination, will be found scratched
or pecked; and when the closest attention is not paid, or the person
superintending the process is devoid of mechanical skill, the injury
is proportionate.

The ordinary pulping-mill in use, consists of a cylinder of wood or
iron, covered with sheet brass or copper, and punctured similarly to a
nutmeg grater. This cylinder, technically called the barrel, runs upon
a spindle, which turns a brass pick on each side of a frame.
Immediately in a line with the centre upon which it turns, and placed
vertical to each other, are two pieces of wood, frequently shod with
iron of copper, called "the chops," placed about half an inch apart,
or sufficient to allow the passage of "parchment" coffee between them.
The lower chop is placed so close to the barrel, yet without contact,
that all coffee must be stopped by it and thrown outwards. The upper
chop is adjusted to that distance only which will permit the cherry
coffee to come into contact with the barrel; but will not allow the
berries to pass on till they have been denuded of their red epidermis
by a gentle squeeze against its rough surface. The far greater portion
of the pulps are separated by being carried past the lower chops upon
the sharp points of the copper, and thrown out behind, and a few are
left with the parchment coffee. As from the different sizes of the
berries, and their crowding for precedence as they descend from the
hopper above to the gentle embrace of the barrel and upper chop, some
pass unpulped, the coffee as it comes from the lower chop is made to
fall upon a riddle, which separates the unpulped cherries. These are
put back again, and passed through a pulper with the upper chop set
closer. The secret of working-appears to be the proper setting of the
chops, and many have been the schemes proposed for reducing this to a
certainty. Perhaps, after all, few plans are better than the old
wedges, by tightening or loosening of which the chop is kept in the
required position. Within the last few years, the machine has been
considerably improved by being formed entirely of iron, cog-wheels
being substituted in the place of straps and drums to move the riddle,
and the riddle itself is now formed of two sieves, by which the chance
of unpulped berries reaching the parchment is lessened. On some
estates, water-wheels have been put up to drive several pulpers at one
time, which otherwise would req