Mays, 1887.] 



•THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



783 



cup of cocoa, the fragrant, steaming chocolate, the 

 sustaining, wholesome bars and " drops " et the same 

 toothsome dainty, or in the delicate and delicious 

 confections into -which chocolate, cream, cocoa-nut, 

 vanille, and other pleasant things enter, Theohroma, 

 " food of the gods," is constantly before us. The 

 weary workman fortifies himself for his long trudge 

 homeward through the snow, when the short winter 

 day has closed in, with a cup of cheering cocoa ; 

 the buttertiy of fashion sips its cocoa from tiny 

 Sevres cups in my lady's boudoir; the hard-worked 

 governess, toiling from house to house for a poor 

 pittance, supports exhausted nature by furtively mun- 

 ching chocolate as she goes, knowing well its ex- 

 ceptional powers ; and her pupils are not, we may 

 be sure, innocent of the delights of the more luxurious 

 forms of the sweetmeat. It is not always that the 

 luxury of the rich is equally the wholesome and 

 attainable indulgence of other and less fortunate 

 classes ; but in cocoa and chocolate we have not only 

 a delicacy fit to be dubbed theohroma, but at the 

 same time a nutritious food and beverage for all 

 sorts and condition of men. 



That this is so is of course due in no small degree 

 to the skill and enterprise brought to bear in the 

 manufacture and manipulation of the material. The 

 mechanical requisites in the making of cocoa and 

 chocolate are now brought to a rare degree of per- 

 fection, and in addition to this the " putting up " 

 of chocolate by a fir.st-rate firm evidences so much 

 taste and refinement that the very appearance of 

 the boxes stimulates the appetite and acts as a fitting 

 herald of the dainties to be found within. 



It would be difficult to find a more complete 

 example of the nicetj', .scrupulous cleanliness of manipula- 

 tion and surroundings, and for that matter of the ex- 

 treme delicacy and toothsomeness of the manufactured 

 article, than may be found in the extensive manufactory 

 which staTids hard by the Avon, in the good old 

 city of Bristol, from which emanate the productions 

 known all over the world, and bearing the time- 

 honoured name of Fry. It is not too much to say 

 that Fry's cocoa is a household word all the world 

 over. And it is no matter for surprise that such 

 should be the cise. Those who have been priviledged, 

 like ourselves, to go over the well-ordered works, and 

 inspect the various processes of manipulation, and 

 admire the all-pervading air of extreme method with 

 which the processes in question are carried out, can 

 readily understand the firm hold which Messrs. Fry's 

 productions have obtained upon the public. Here 

 we see for ourselves that the materials used are of 

 the best, the apparatus of the most perfect, the 

 employes of a class which speaks volumes for them- 

 selves, and the great firm whose interests they serve, 

 order, cleanliness, method, reign supreme, and the 

 outcome is not merely excellence but economy. Messrs. 

 Fry can compete with the world both as regards 

 the quality and cost of their productions — hence the 

 secret of their success. The public are too critical 

 and too well informed nowadays to be satihfied with 

 crude, imperfect, or extravagantly dear conditions in 

 the commodities which enter into their everyday life, 

 and they know by experience that they may safely 

 accept the name of Fry as a guarantee of excellence. 

 The Manufactory is an extensive range of buildings. 

 It has grown with the growth of a firm which has 

 been in existence more than a hundred and fifty years. 

 The original premises gradually absorbed the houses 

 right and left for a considerable distance. At the 

 back of these some years later was built a factory 

 of four floors, what then doubtless was looked upon 

 as a great extension. 



Later on another building of seven floors was added, 

 double the size of the former works, and later on the 

 extension of the trade again compelled the erection 

 of yet another building of seven floors. Upou en- 

 tering the buildings one is at once struck with the 

 sight of corridors lined with oblong blocks of cocoa 

 and chocolate, as one ascends to the eighth floor, 

 where the roasting-room is reached. Here the raw 

 material is first utilised. In revolving cylinders the beans, 

 from which all palpably imperfect specimens have 



been picked, are carefully roasted, a process upon 

 which very much depends. The nuts are shot into 

 hopper.s, and crushed and winnowed in order to re- 

 move the thin adhesive shell, the crushing reducing 

 the nut itself to the form of the familiar cocoa-nibs. 

 Both shell and nibs are articles of commerce, the 

 former being used in Ireland and in some parts of 

 the Continent for the manufacture of a cheap drink. 

 The clean nuts are then ground. The mills being 

 warm, the fatty part of the cocoa-nut, or cocoa butter, 

 is partially freed, and the hard dry nut is thus re- 

 duced by giinding to an oleaginous paste, which is 

 further ground to a finer paste of a creamlike con- 

 sistency. For storing purposes this paste is poured 

 into cold moulds, from which it emerges in solid blocks- 

 of pure cocoa. To make the famous " Cocoa Extract" 

 this liquid passes through some further important 

 stages. "Well-filled canvas bags are placed in metal 

 cylinders with punctured holes, hydraulic pressure 

 is applied to the extent of 1,200 lb. to the square 

 inch, and out comes the cocoa butter, when warm 

 as liquid as salad oil. Collected in oblong tins, it 

 cools to the consistency and appearance of clarified 

 beeswax. Solid blocks of it adorn the multitudinous 

 floors and passages; some of it is used on the pre- 

 mises, some sold for surgical purposes. It possesses 

 the rare quality of never becoming rancid. When 

 taken out, the dry mass is broken, ground many 

 times, and sifted with fiue sieves, constituting " Cocoa 

 Extract." 



Not content with bringing the "Extract" before 

 the market, Messrs, Fry, determined to solve once 

 and for all the problem how to secure extreme solubi- 

 lity and absolute adaptability to all digestions, have, 

 after some research, produced what they term "Pure 

 Concentrated Soluble Cocoa." The already finely 

 ground powder is ground again and again, and passed 

 through sieves with 2000 holes to the inch, securing 

 perfect fineness. By a new scientific process the finest 

 flavour of carefully blended cocoas is developed, and 

 the result is the excellent preparation we all know. 

 The fancy confectionery department is more com- 

 plicated. The "creams" may be taken as typical 

 of more classes than one. The chocolate used for 

 covering these "morsels of delight" is reduced to 

 a thin and workable paste. To prepare the "cream," 

 pure boiled sugar is poured into an open pan and 

 allowed to cool. It is then eflBciently stirred, till it 

 assumes the opaque creamy consistency so much 

 desired. By means of an adaptation from the 

 printing-press, hundreds of tiny moulds are " dabbed " 

 out on trays of powdered starch, and into these moulds 

 the sugar, with any flavouring or colouring required, is 

 rapidly poured by dexterous assistants. Thence the tiny 

 globes are taken to the covering rooms, where scores of 

 girls with trays of thin prepared chocolate perform their 

 part. Here again, it is only necessary to change the 

 mould and the particular flavouring to produce vastly 

 different forms of sweetmeat. There are sugar boil- 

 ing rooms, moulding rooms, and covering-rooms appa- 

 rently without number, to detail which would encroach 

 too much upon our space. In short, it only remains 

 to add that the skill and enterprise of the firm has 

 not fifone without its due reward. Two members of 

 the family enjoy the honourable distinction of being 

 Members of Parliaments, and the firm of J. S. Fry 

 and Sons is honourably known in every quarter of 

 the globe. — British Mercantile Gazette. 



FOEEST TEEES are now felled in America with dyna- 

 mite. A cartridge of the explosive substance is placed 

 in a channel board directly under the tree to be operat- 

 ed upon, and when exploded the tree is simply forced 

 up bodily and falls intact on its side. In most instances 

 it is found that the tree is not fractured by the force 

 of the expio' ion ; a large proportion of valuable wood 

 at the b.^sc of the trunk can be utilized which is now 

 lost. For clearing forest properties this method is 

 admirably adapted, as it brings up the root of the tree 

 at the one operation, and dispenses with the tedious 

 and costly process of grubbing the roots of the felled 

 timber.— JoMrnaJ of Forestry. 



