vi. The Fermentation of Cacao 



improvements, many of these hardly less 

 important than the so-called fermentation of 

 the seed, as a stage in its curing (plantation 

 manufacture). 



Over thirty years ago, when I first took up 

 the study of the cultivation and manufacture of 

 tea, that industry was then in the very position 

 of cacao to-day. We have reduced the area of 

 cultivation but increased the outturn ; we have 

 improved the quality but reduced the cost. 

 These are great triumphs of scientific precision 

 as also of inventive ingenuity brought to bear 

 on tea, but the same thing can be and will 

 be accomplished with cacao. It seems to me 

 possible that far too much merit is attributed to 

 fermentation. That fermentation is necessary 

 with the presently accepted method of curing 

 goes without saying, but I would not be 

 surprised were a new process introduced where 

 fermentation could be entirely discontinued. 

 The parallel with tea is worthy of the most 

 careful study. But it is perhaps useless to 

 speculate ; the opinions your authors advance 

 are certain to be tested at the plantations, and 

 out of the new experience thus gained must 

 Devolve the future system of manufacture. 



