uire from two to four men each to work
them, but from the costly buildings and appurtenances which such
machinery renders necessary, they are rare.

Although the operation of pulping is so simple, it is one which
requires the machine to be set in such a way that the greatest
quantity of work may be done, or, in other words, the smallest
quantity of unpulped berries be allowed to pass through. On the other
hand, the berries must not be subjected to injury from the barrel; for
if the parchment skin is pricked through, the berry will appear, when
cured, with an unsightly brown mark upon it. Several new coverings for
barrels, instead of punctured copper, have been tried; among others,
coir-cloth and wire net, but the old material is not as yet
superseded. After pulping, the coffee in parchment is received into
cisterns, in which it is, by washing, deprived of the mucilaginous
matter that still adheres to it. Without this most necessary
operation, the mucilage would ferment and expose the berry to injury,
from its highly corrosive qualities.

As some portion of pulp finds its way with the coffee to the cistern,
which, if suffered to remain would, by its long retention of moisture,
lengthen the subsequent drying process, various methods have been
adopted to remove it. One mode is to pass the coffee a second time
through a sieve worked by two men; another to pick it off the surfaces
of the cistern, to which it naturally rises.

In August, 1846, premiums were awarded by the Ceylon Agricultural
Society to Messrs. Clerihew and Josias Lambert for the improvements
they had introduced into coffee-pulpers, which, by their exertions,
had been brought to great perfection. The first improved complete
cast-iron pulper received in the island, was made for Mr. Jolly, from
drawings sent home by Mr. Lambert to Messrs. B. Hick and Son,
engineers. This pulper is one of the most perfect in every respect
that has yet been brought into use, the disadvantages belonging to the
old machine having been entirely remedied. The sieve crank has a
double eccentric action. The chops are regulated by set screws, and
the sieve suspended in a novel and secure manner, the whole combining
strength and efficacy, together with an elegance of form, which will
likewise be appreciated.

Mr. W. Clerihew, of Ceylon, submitted to the Great Exhibition a model
of his approved apparatus for drying coffee (which has been patented
in the name of Robert R. Banks, Great