re, for some of the berries are
already ripe and dried when others hidden under the branches have not yet
reached the required degree of maturity. An experienced hand can collect
from 400 to 450 litres of coffee berries per day. It takes an average of
100 litres of coffee berries to produce 15 kilos of prepared coffee beans
ready to be shipped. The crop is not the same every year. After one
plentiful crop there generally succeeds one year, sometimes two or three,
of poor--almost insignificant--collections, varying according to the care
that is taken of the trees and the soil.

When once the coffee has been collected and transported to the fazenda in
baskets, blankets and sheets, it is necessary to remove the skin and
viscous pulpy matter which envelop the beans. This is done partly by
maceration in water tanks, and afterwards by drying upon extensive flat
terraces, tiled or cemented, and locally called _terreiro_. The process
of drying by machinery has not been adopted in Brazil; principally
because of its high cost. The coffee is first placed for some days in
mounds on the terraces, until fermentation of the outer skin begins,
which afterwards hastens desiccation when coffee is spread flat in a thin
layer on the terraces. When once the coffee berries have been freed from
their pulpy envelope and skin, the desiccation--if the weather is
propitious--takes place in a few days. Care must be taken to move the
berries constantly, so that they dry evenly on all sides, as perfect
desiccation is necessary in order to preserve the coffee in good
condition after it is packed for shipment.

There are two ways of preparing coffee for export--the humid and the dry.
In the humid process the berries are placed in a special machine called
_despolpadore_, which leaves the beans merely covered and held together
in couples by the membrane immediately enclosing them after the skin and
viscous sugary coating have been removed. Those coffees are called in
commerce, _lavados_, or washed.

The dry process consists, after the berries have been skinned and dried,
in removing part of the pulp and membrane in a special machine and a
series of ventilators. They are then quite ready for export.

The preparation of coffee from the drying terraces is slightly more
complicated. The coffee passes through a first ventilator, which frees it
from impurities such as earth, stems, stones, filaments, etc.; from this
it is conveyed by means of an elevator i