When the coffee is perfectly cured—­which is generally ascertained by threshing out a few berries in one’s hands, and seeing if it has attained its horny blue colour—­it is then fit for milling, which is the second process of machinery which it has to undergo.  Here the parchment and silver skins are dislodged from the berry, by means of the friction of a large roller passing over the produce in a wooden trough.  It is then taken out of the trough, and submitted to the fanner or winnowing machine, when the trash is all blown away, and the coffee, passing through two or three sieves, comes away perfectly clean and partially sized.  From this it is again sieved in order to size it properly, hand-picked, put into bags, and sent on mules’ backs to the wharf.  It is then put into tierces and sold in the Kingston market, or shipped to Britain.

A variety of circumstances tend to injure the quality of the coffee, which it is beyond human agency to control.  Dry weather intervening at the particular period when the berry is getting full, subjects it to be stinted and shrivelled; and strong dry breezes happening at the same period, will cause an adhesion of the silver skin which the ordinary process of curing and manufacture will not remove.  Late discoveries in the latter have, however, shown the possibility of divesting the produce of that silvery appearance, when brought about under the foregoing circumstances.  It is almost, unnecessary to state that this improvement in manufacture refers to the inventions of Messrs. Myers and Meacock, whose respective merits have already undergone public revision.  In reference to Mr. Myers’ plan of immersing coffee in warm water, I may be allowed to state that it has come under my own observation, that produce which had previously been heated through some carelessness in the curing, subsequently was exposed to a slight sprinkling of rain, and when ground out and fanned, was found to have lost its silvery appearance.

To the invention of Mr. Meacock, a preference has, however, been given, in consequence of the impression that the produce thus immersed in water will absorb a portion of the liquid, which will deteriorate its quality in its passage across the Atlantic.  Several gentlemen have shipped coffee submitted to this process to England, but I have not learnt the result.

It appears very manifest that a great deal might be done in the way of machinery, to relieve produce of that silvery or foxy appearance which is so prejudicial to its value in the British market, and which appearances might accrue from a variety of incidents to which all plantations are more or less subject.

A manifest preference is given in the leading European markets to coffee which has gone through the pulping and washing process; but, strange