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by the highest branches withering, and this process continues 

 until the entire tree is invaded and dies in the course of a year 

 or so. Sometimes it attacks odd trees, at others groups, but 

 the result is ever the same death. The malady is vulgarly 

 known as " gorgojo," or weevil, as perforations appear, but 

 whether a weevil is the cause remains to be ascertained. I 

 am inclined to think the evil starts in the root, judging from 

 the way the extremities of the branches first succumb. 



If a practical expert on cocoa diseases would undertake to 

 examine and point out the remedy for this evil, he would not 

 only render a signal service and enhance his reputation thereby, 

 but I am certain that the Agricultural Society of Bogota would 

 remunerate him handsomely. 



Mr. S. H. DAVIES (Messrs. Rowntree and Co.) : Mr. Chair- 

 man I would like first to congratulate you on the extra- 

 ordinary results which have accrued under your Governorship 

 in the production of cocoa on the Gold Coast. The economic 

 importance of that result is not confined to your Colony, 

 but is of enormous importance to the industry. I wanted 

 to say a word about the only debatable point, and that is 

 the curing and preparation of cocoa. An immense amount 

 of nonsense has been written on the fermentation of cocoa, 

 but we know that the actual principles which underlie the fer- 

 mentation of cocoa are extremely simple. It is exactly like the 

 fermentation of any fruit. In the first few hours of fer- 

 mentation you have the organisms which are found on the pod 

 at the time they are cut down; these are known locally as wild 

 yeasts, and they grow first. Then their place is taken by a 

 true yeast, which gives rise to a very large amount of alcohol. 

 That is finally replaced by other organisms, and especially by 

 an organism which is brought to the pods by the vinegar fly. 

 Bearing this in mind, I think with every respect to my dis- 

 tinguished French colleague who spoke of replacing fermen- 

 tation by sterilization by steam, that the latter would not effect 

 all the objects gained by fermentation. In fermentation in a 

 close mass you have the products percolating all the time 

 through the skin, and modifying the cocoa. It is true that 

 with sterilization, if you allow plenty of air to play on the 

 cocoa you can do all that is necessary in the way of changing 

 the violet or slate coloured bean to a brown or red bean, but 

 you do not get the products of alcoholic and acetic fermen- 

 tation percolating into the bean. I think that we are now 

 rather at the parting of the ways; it is being suggested on 

 many hands that it would be well to do away with fermentation 

 and to replace it by immediate drying, but these methods are 

 not in themselves sufficient entirely to replace fermentation, and 



