1 82 The Fermentation of Cacao 



when the box had been left " unchanged." It 

 is a necessary part of this process that the 

 bottom layers of cacao are always inverted to 

 the top and vice versa. A wooden spade made 

 for this purpose should always be used ; not 

 only is it lighter and more convenient to 

 handle, but the contact of fermenting cacao 

 with iron results in a stain on the cacao seed. 



NEGATIVE EXPERIMENTS. 



Before leaving the subject of fermenting, it 

 may prove useful to those interested in this 

 matter to mention two experiments that were 

 tried with unsuccessful results. 



The first was simply pouring back again and 

 again over the cacao the exuding liquid that 

 oozed from the bottom of the box. There was 

 no sign of increased. or prolonged fermentation 

 resulting from this procedure. The maximum 

 temperature attained was 109 F. with 300 Ib. 

 of wet cacao, and it commenced to fail on the 

 sixth day. 



The second experiment was based on the 

 assumed possibility that fermentation was 

 prematurely checked by the production of 

 acetic acid. It is a common phenomenon with 

 quickly multiplying micro-organisms that, as 

 a result of their rapid labours, their environ- 

 ment is self poisoned by the production of 

 some substance which, as the quantity in- 

 creases, becomes inimical to their welfare and 

 eventually destroys them. As acetic acid is 



