The Coffee Planter of Ceylon (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1866 Excerpt: ...but more correct information may be easily obtained on application either to London or local engineers. The pulpers or crushers are fed from the cherry loft. An aperture two inches square is sufficiently large, and if the chefry coffee is well heaped over this hole it will feed the machinery unassisted for a considerable time; there should, however, be a cooly constantly on the watch. Much saving in labour has of course been effected by the adoption of steam and water-power, and the cooly has been saved the very laborious and wearing work of hand-pulping. Pulping during the day-time is preferable to night-work, but it is customary on estates to work off the coffee as it comes in; so that the pulping house coolies are sometimes retained till seven or eight o'clock, for which they are paid at the rate of one penny per hour. In the old days of handpulping a tot of arrack was sometimes given in addition or in lieu of the cash payment; but I never adopted this plan, deeming it best not to encourage coolies to drink ardent spirits, though in the case of the "polleus" and "parriahs" such a precaution availed little, the love of drink being inherent. THE ENEMIES OF THE COFFEE-TREE. With coffee planters, as with English farmers, there is seldom a season when everything goes right. Thus, if the crop is a good one, there are not sufficient coolies to pick it; or when there is a short crop, there are so many hands that one is puzzled how to employ them. At other times, scarcity and dearness of rice, exorbitant cart-hire, excess of rain or drought--all more or less tend to make the planter anything but a contented man. In addition to the drawbacks enumerated above, the coffee-tree suffers from the attacks of various creatures of the animal and insect...