ance. No alternative remains then for the tree but to increase in width, which it does to so extraordinary a degree that under favorable circumstances, unless prevented by cutting, in the course of a very few years, it becomes completely matted and clogged with foliage, and although upon a superficial view it presents a beautiful and apparently healthy appearance, being large and of a rich deep green color, it is entirely useless being quite barren; the branches when examined will be discovered to be weak and spindly and incapable of bearing. Some of the causes of this barrenness are the want of a free circulation of light and air which is prevented by the excessive luxuriance of the foliage, and the harboring of noxious vapors in wet weather from the same cause, also the continual accumulation of wood which having done its work and not being removed robs the tree of the support which should be bestowed on the young bearing wood and fruit. To remedy this diseased state the pruning knife is absolutely necessary.

The bearing qualities of most fruit trees in temperate climates are considered to be improved by a light annual pruning, how much more so must it be the case in tropical climates where vegetation is so much more luxuriant, and where the trees are subjected to a process productive of such wonderful effects on their growth as that of topping.

With difference of circumstances the coffee tree will of course require different methods and amounts of pruning. On poor soils and in places where the trees are small and their foliage thin, it will hardly be necessary to do more than to take out the dead wood and suckers, with here and there a straggling branch that has already borne and seems incapable of being of any further service. In rich soils and places where the growth is exuberant, the tree will require a different treatment. It would be impossible to give directions to enable a person unacquainted with the habits of the tree to become an expert pruner for which a considerable amount of experience is absolutely necessary. I shall therefore content myself with laying down a few short rules to give a general idea as to what wood is to be cut out and what left.

It must be borne in mind that the object of pruning is three-fold, viz: to remove all the superfluous and useless wood, to stimulate the tree by cutting to throw out a new supply of young wood, and to admit the

light and cause a free circulation of air throughout the tree. All wood then should be cut away which grows within six inches of the stem, as well as that which shoots out in a cross direction lying over the other branches and causing an appearance of irregularity; especially should be removed that wood which has done its work, and hangs about the tree long, straggling and weak, with only two large leaves at the end of the branch.

There is another branch to which the trees become subject after they have arrived at maturity, and which should be cut out at the socket before it becomes too large; it is called by the French planters "la branche gourmande," and from them, English coffee planters have given it the name of "the gormandizer;" it is produced on young plants by improper pruning, or careless cutting, or breaking some of the primary branches, which as I have before observed, when once destroyed, are never re-produced; the gormandizer also, according to the best authorities naturally makes its appearance on old and worn fields; it is of the sucker tribe but horizontal instead of vertical and projects far beyond the rest of the tree; it is not inaptly named, as it robs the tree of most of its aliment and causes it to become weakly and barren.

Great care should be taken that too free use be not made of the pruning knife, and that it is not put into the hands of careless or ig norant persons, should this caution not be attended to the consequences might be most disastrous; once for all, none of the primaries nor any young nor healthy wood should on any account be removed. The pruning should be commenced as early as possible after the crop has been secured and should be finished before the first blossoming.

When the berries are thoroughly ripe crop commences, and on an extensive plantation a large number of additional hands, principally women, can generally be advantageously employed. The method of collecting the produce is by hand, each picker takes a space between two rows of trees and picks on each side of him as he goes along, he carries a small calabash or bag, kept open at the mouth, which as fast as filled he empties into a larger one at a small distance, when this larger one is filled it is carried to the works and emptied into a hopper above the pulping mill. A diligent picker, when ripe coffee is plentiful will frequently gather four bushels equal to about forty

pounds of cured coffee per day. I have found women to be more expert pickers than men.

When there is a sufficiency of coffee in the hopper the mill is put in operation and the berries are separated from the hulls or skins; this operation is easily effected by passing the coffee between a heavy cylinder covered with roughened copper, or other metal, on which a stream of water is kept continually running, and a bar of wood, lined with metal, wedges so close to the cylinder as just to admit the berries, which being thus subjected to a heavy pressure are deprived of their hull, the greater part of which is carried by the roughened surface of the roller between itself and another bar of wood set so close to it as not to admit the berries which now appear in their parchment covering, which latter is enveloped in a sort of gummy mucilage. The broken hulls are thus discharged at one end of the mill while the coffee falls on a sieve which is set in motion with the rest of the machinery and thus separated from the few hulls that escape being carried away between the cylinder and second crossbar. No coffee should be kept in the hull longer than one night, for if kept any length of time the hull becomes tough and leathery and exceedingly difficult to be removed.

The coffee is next soaked in water for twenty four hours for the purpose of removing the gummy matter in which it is enveloped ; two water-tight stone tanks, each sufficiently large to contain a day's grinding or pulping will be found sufficient for this purpose. I should recommend them to be built about eight feet square, three feet deep and with a shelving bottom. After the soaking it is to be repeatedly washed to render it perfectly clean, it is then thinly spread on the terraces to dry, these should be built gradually sloping from the centres to the sides, to allow the moisture to drain off, they should also be furnished with water-tight receptacles in their centres in which the partially dry coffee is thrown in the event of a shower and at night. The surface of the terraces is made even either by being flagged with stone slabs, or covered with cement; care should be taken at the commencement of the crop that they are in good order, for if not the coffee will be broken and of bad quality. The roofs of the drying and storehouses should also be carefully looked after and all leaks stopped.

The coffee in its partially dry state should never be heaped up, or

it would heat and spoil, but when sufficiently dry to be housed, it should be spread out a few inches thick on flat forms, and even here it should be continually stirred over until its turn arrives to be subjected to the parch'nenting or peeling operation. It will generally be fit to be housed after the third day's drying, provided the weather is uninterruptedly fine; the grain has by this time considerably shrunk within its parchment covering, and instead of completely filling it as it did at the time of peeling, it is upon being shaken heard to rattle inside. It sometimes happens during crop that a succession of rainy weather sets in, during this time the operations in the mill-house must, to a certain extent be interrupted; no drying can of course go on, and the accumulation of coffee on the terraces will be very great; in wet seasons it must sometimes lie exposed for a period of five or six weeks; during the whole of this time it should be thoroughly turned over and stirred two or three times each day to prevent it from growing. The clothing of the pickers should be attended to at these seasons, and as on merely showery days the picking can not be stopped, in places where labor is cheap I think the coffee grower would find it to his interest to distribute coarse woolen shirts among them gratis.

After the fifth or sixth day's exposure to the sun and wind, the parchment will be found quite dry and friable, and the coffee will be fit for the mill, if upon a few berries being rubbed between the hands the parchment is easily broken; it cannot be too dry; in this state it is passed under a heavy grooved wooden roller which is made to resolve in a trough also grooved; by this means the parchment is broken, and a thin pellicle or membrane within the parchment, called the silver skin, is removed. There is another method which is very effectual, but which requires rather more time to remove these two coverings by a machine called a peeling mill; this is a sort of drum the circumference and ends of which are made of roughened sheet-iron it is made

to revolve rather slowly on its axis; on the same axis are four fanners or beaters also made of roughened sheet-iron, and which revolve inside the drum with great celerity: a quantity of coffee is put inside, the machine is set in motion and in a few minutes the coffee is turned out beautifully cleaned-it is then winnowed, packed, and sent to market.

In divesting coffee of the parchment and silver skin I make use of

both these machines, the roller first and the drum afterwards with very good effect; in this manner the coffee does not require to be kept so long in the drum as it would do were it not first passed under the roller. Two men with two horses or mules may in this manner easily prepare twelve hundred pounds of merchantable coffee per day.

In some parts of Arabia the coffee is not subjected to any process of preparation for market for a considerable period, but when brought in from the field is dried on mats, it is then spread out in thin layers in buildings open to the atmosphere, where it remains, being continually stirred and turned over for a twelvemonth before the coverings are removed. There is no doubt that coffee prepared in this manner retains a much greater aroma and richer flavor than that prepared in the manner I have above described, but it would be quite inexpedient, if not impossible for us to adopt the same plan.

In some parts of the East also an infusion is made and sold in the markets, of the hulls of the berry as they come from the mill, but the refined palate of the European or American would not approve of this insipid beverage; the only use made of the hulls with us is for the purpose of manure, and there is no doubt that all the refuse of the mill-house returned to the field is of essential service; a small portion both of the hulls and parchment chaff should be appropriated to, and buried at the roots of each tree.

It is a matter of some consequence to determine what is the best and cheapest method of packing the produce. I have hitherto employed bags made of the rushes that are found in abundance about the low lands for that purpose, but it seems that the increasing scarcity of labor will, ere long, compel us to have recourse to imported materials for our packages.

Coffee should not be stored near tobacco, spice, or any commodity of pungency or strong scent, for however good the packages may be, it will always in such a situation, to a certain extent become tinctured with another article's to the injury of its own flavor.

The method of preparing the infusion for the table is too well known to need a description of the process from me, the only directions that I consider necessary to give for the obtaining of this delicious beverage in perfection are, first :-To roast the coffee till it becomes of a uniform chocolate color without its being at all charred, as it is in this