FOREWORD. 



THE FERMENTATION OF CACAO. 



BY SIR GEORGE WATT, C.I.E., LL.D., F.L.S., &c. 



I HAVE read every word of your work on the 

 Fermentation of Cacao with absorbing interest, 

 and must congratulate you on being able to 

 bring out a book that will become a classic on 

 the subject it deals with so very ably. You 

 have brought together the opinions of several 

 experts of scientific eminence and practical 

 experience, and these must be drawn upon by 

 all subsequent investigators until finally there 

 is evolved something definite and of universal 

 acceptance. 



Here and there there are differences of 

 opinion among your authors, as you yourself 

 have pointed out, but in many cases these will 

 be resolved into the effects of variations in 

 climate, soil, water, variety of plant, or such 

 like simple causes. In other words, the 

 differences are more in the theories formed 

 than in the observations made. I believe the 

 entire industry of growing and curing cacao 

 is very largely groping in the dark. There 

 are a hundred and one directions of future 



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