During a continuance of nearly three months of wet weather which occurred at one crop time, the coffee in the curing-house dried very slowly, but was kept in a perfectly fresh and sweet state without the intervention of any manual labour, further than in depositing each day’s increase in the lower floor to dry off the surface water, and removing that of each previous day to the upper floor, where it was spread on the top of all the coffee that had previously accumulated. These three months of wet weather were succeeded by a fortnight of very dry weather, and, on examining the coffee at the end of that period, it was found to have reached the dry horny stage at which it is usual to despatch it from the estate to Colombo, for the purpose of being peeled and shipped. On examining the beans they were found to be of that clear colour which distinguishes coffee carefully cured in small quantities, with the advantage of the most favourable weather. Under like circumstances, viz. during such a continuation of wet weather, it would have been impossible to preserve the coffee free from more or less mustiness of smell, by manual labour employed in the usual way, whilst at the same time the expense of storework would have been more than fourfold. The whole expense of the storework, viz. pulping, washing, curing, and storing the Rathoongodde coffee, amounted to 2¼d. per cwt., and when it is considered that during crop time the value of every man’s labour is greatly increased, it is an object, as far as possible, to substitute mechanical contrivance for manual labour, so that all hands may be employed in gathering the crop as it ripens.