Mr. George S. Hudson 207 



aided agricultural departments and societies 

 to try preliminary experiments with these 

 machines, and according to results report 

 favourably or unfavourably upon them. It is 

 more than probable that the makers would be 

 only too pleased to co-operate in these trials 

 with a view to lessening the cost. The 

 prospect of taking one's cacao from the fer- 

 menting box at 6 a.m. and getting it dried, 

 polished, bagged up, and carted away by the 

 afternoon will appeal to most planters as a 

 most desirable state of things, which we may 

 hope some day to realize, as others are 

 apparently doing even now. 



WASHED CACAO. 



While one cannot doubt that the large cacao 

 buyers in Europe and the United States are 

 trained, keen experts at their trade, it is a 

 curious point to the planter that they will pay 

 2s. per cwt. more for "polished" or " clayed " 

 cacao, which only improves the superficial 

 appearance and adds to the weight without 

 improving the quality in any appreciable 

 degree, and yet can only be induced to give 

 the same advance on ordinary prices for 

 "washed" cacao, which, according to general 

 observation, frees the beans from gums and 

 other extraneous matter (which should be of 

 no use to the manufacturer) to the extent of 

 from 4 per cent, to 15 per cent, in dry 

 weight. My own experiments place the loss 



