The Fermentation or Sweating, 



The wet cacao is put to exude in a kind of stove or hot- 

 house. Such a stove is partitioned off in boxes or little rooms 

 and must be closed as tightly as possible against the penetration 

 of the outward air. 



The floor must be of planks provided with holes to carry off 

 the juice of the fruit. A stone floor is not advisable, because the 

 cacao-juice would find no vent, and the beans, too, by getting 

 into the joints would break, might spoil and get hard by remain- 

 ing partially in the moisture. The cacao must be heaped up in the 

 stove, and turned over every 24 hours to obtain a regular 

 sweating. If, however, this can be done twice in the 24 hours, 

 so much the better, for, the more lightly and loosely the cacao 

 lies, the more easily the sweating goes on, by which the slimy 



