164 The Fermentation of Cacao 



may be briefly stated that when one considers 

 all the difficulties of his case, the small native 

 grower is not in a position to economically 

 turn out fine parcels of cured cacao, and if he. 

 were he would not do it. 



Practical Estate Cacao Curing. 



PICKING UNRIPE PODS. 



In the valuations of Mincing Lane brokers 

 on " Fine Estates " West Indian cacao (exclud- 

 ing- the "fancy marks" of Trinidad and 

 Montserrat) it is common to find the words 

 " part unripe" insisted on and repeated over 

 long periods. No doubt the same com- 

 ment is applied to similar cacao from Bahia, 

 the West Coast (Africa) and St. Thome. On 

 examining samples of this cacao, viz., fine 

 West Indian, there will be found a certain 

 percentage of the seed (say 10 per cent, to 

 20 per cent.) that are flat. On "breaking"" 

 these seeds, although the break is more brittle 

 and the testa or skin of the bean separates 

 more easily than that of similar beans of unfer- 

 mented cacao, yet they exhibit an undesir- 

 able compact fracture of violet colour unin- 

 terrupted by the lacunae or air spaces found 

 between the convolutions of the cotyledons of 

 higher class cacao. Even the cacao highly 

 fermented by Dr. Lucius Nicholls' process 

 still contains a similar proportion of these flat 

 seeds. While there is therefore every excuse 



