Dr. A. Schulte im Hofe 87 



place, and the consequent moulds formed from 

 that cannot be avoided. Hence, according to 

 the weather conditions, one may obtain at one 

 time comparatively very good results, whilst 

 at another period a very bad quality of cacao 

 is produced. This was probably the reason 

 for the introduction of appliances such as 

 movable trays, by which the cacao could be 

 rapidly placed under cover when it commenced 

 to rain. By thus sheltering the beans the 

 above-mentioned drawbacks were considerably 

 diminished, but it was never possible to obtain 

 so good a cacao as was obtained by drying on 

 floors when favoured by several successive 

 days of fine weather. At the same time 

 mechanically dried cacao is never so bad as 

 that which has been subjected to several 

 successive rainy days. 



In other countries the opinion has gained 

 ground that a better quality cacao could be 

 produced with slow drying by spreading the 

 cacao out in thicker Iayers That such may 

 be the case can be easily understood from 

 what has been said above. The slow-drying 

 process gives the oxygen a longer opportunity 

 for acting on the beans ; further, the tempera- 

 ture then existing is, as a rule, more favourable 

 for oxidation. 



My assumption that, at times, as with tea, 

 oxidation is favourably influenced by higher 

 temperatures, was also confirmed by experi- 

 ments conducted at the Botanical Gardens in 



