MANUFACTURE 



129 



Bolton) that it was formerly the practice not to remove 

 the shell. This is incorrect, the more usual practice 

 from the earliest times has been to remove the shells, 

 though not so completely as they are removed by the 

 efficient machinery of to-day. 



In A Curious Treatise on the Nature and Quality of 

 Chocolate, by Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma (1685), 

 we read : " And if you peel the cacao, and take it out 

 of its little shell, the drink thereof will be more dainty 

 and delicious." Willoughby, in his Travels in Spain, 

 (1664), writes : " They first toast the berries to get off 



CACAO BEAN, SHELL AND GERM. 



the husk," and R. Brookes, in the Natural History of 

 Chocolate (1730), says : " The Indians .... roast 

 the kernels in earthen pots, then free them from their 



