54 



COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 



cacao is usually shovelled from one box to another every 

 one or two davs. The chief object of this operation is 

 to mix the cacao and prevent merely local fermenta- 

 tion. To make mixing easy one ingenious planter uses 

 a cylindrical vessel which can be turned about on its 

 axis. 



Fermenting Boxes, Java. 

 From the last box the beans are shovelled into the washing basin. 



(Reproduced from van Hall's Cocoa, by permission of Messrs. Marmillan & Co.) 



In other places, for example in Java, the boxes are 

 arranged as a series of steps, so that the cacao is trans- 

 ferred with little labour from the higher to the lower. 

 In San Thome the cacao is placed on the plantation 

 direct into trucks, which are covered with plaintain 

 leaves, and run on rails through the plantation right 

 into the fermentary. Some day some enterprising 

 firm will build a fermentary in portable sections easily 

 erected, and with some simple mechanical mixer to 



