When the crops ripen, they must be gathered and cured under all circumstances of weather; and as it generally happens that this has to be done during the prevalence of the periodical rains, the difficulties to be contended with are so much the greater. The extensive nature of the operations has also to be taken into account in forming an estimate of the difficulties to be provided for. During the busy season of crop upwards of 1000 bushels of cherries are daily gathered from some plantations, yielding an increase of 500 bushels of parchment coffee to be daily added to that which has already accumulated in the store. Past experience having shown that coffee was most easily preserved in a sweet state when spread thinly on the floor, large and commodious buildings were called into use, notwithstanding the unusually heavy expense which attended their erection in situations remote from town, where sufficiently skilful labour was only to be had at the time, and with great difficulty. On this account inadequate accommodation was provided on many plantations, and the coffee accumulating to a considerable depth, no amount of hand-turning could keep it from contracting a musty smell, its proneness to decomposition increasing greatly in proportion to the extent of the accumulation. Some years ago it occurred to Mr. Clerihew that it was possible, by means of fanners, working on the exhausting principle, so to withdraw air from an enclosed space as to establish a current of air through masses of coffee spread on perforated floors forming the top and bottom of that space. This plan he carried into execution at Rathoongodde plantation, and it has since been adopted by many planters. The following is a detailed description of Mr. Clerihew’s invention, a model of which was shown at the International Exhibition of 1851: The water-wheel is an overshot one, nine feet in diameter, and is of much smaller dimensions than any wheel that has hitherto been employed for pulping. It is, however, sufficient in power to work the fans and pulpers simultaneously, the excess of its power over that of other wheels being gained by the diminution of friction consequent on there being no intervening shafting and gearing. The entire wheel is constructed of wood, with the exception of the shaft, which is unusually light, as it has merely to serve as a support to the wheel. By means of a double band rim-bolted to the arms on each side, motion is given to the pulpers from the one and to the fans from the other. The floors of the curing-house are laid with laths 1¼ inch square and 2 inches apart; these are covered with open coir matting; being rather cheap and durable, this material answers the purpose remarkably well. The side walls of the curing-house are constructed in the manner of the country, viz. of wattled work filled in with clay and smoothed over so as to be air-tight.