This mixture promotes the most rapid decomposition of vegetable matter,
and, combining with the juices of the weeds and the salts of the dung,
it drains evenly through the whole mass, forming a most perfect
compost. The surplus moisture, upon reaching the bottom of the heap,
drains from the slightly inclined platform into the receiving cistern,
and is again pumped over the mass.

This is the cheapest and best way of making manure upon an estate, the
cattle sheds and pits being arranged in the different localities most
suitable for reducing the labor of transport.

The coffee berry, when ripe, is about the size of a cherry, and is
shaped like a laurel berry. The flesh has a sweet but vapid taste, and
encloses two seeds of coffee. These are carefully packed by nature in
a double skin.

The cherry coffee is gathered by coolies at the rate of two bushels
each per diem, and is cleared from the flesh by passing through a
pulper, a machine consisting of cylindrical copper graters, which tear
the flesh from the berry and leave the coffee in its second covering of
parchment, The coffee is then exposed to a partial fermentation by
being piled for some hours in a large heap. This has the effect of
loosening the fleshy particles, which, by washing in a cistern of
running water, are detached from the berry. It is then rendered
perfectly dry in the sun or by means of artificially heated air; and,
being packed in bags, it is forwarded to Colombo. Here, it is unpacked
and sent to the mill, which, by means of heavy rollers, detaches the
parchment and under silver skin, and leaves the grayish-blue berry in a
state for market. The injured grains are sorted out by women, and the
coffee is packed for the last time and shipped to England.

A good and well-managed estate should produce an average crop of ten
hundredweight per acre, leaving a net profit of fifteen shillings per
hundredweight under favorable circumstances. Unfortunately, it is next
to impossible to make definite calculations in all agricultural
pursuits: the inclemency of seasons and the attacks of vermin are
constantly marring the planter's expectations. Among the latter
plagues the "bug" stands foremost. This is a minute and gregarious
insect, which lives upon the juices of the coffee tree, and accordingly
is most destructive to an estate. It attacks a variety of plants, but
more particularly the tribe of jessamine; thus the common jessamine,
the "Gardenia" (Ca