218 



COCOA 



CHAP 



of light wood, but the movable roofs in Trinidad are 

 generally made of plates of zinc on a wooden frame. 



Wherever cocoa is dried in the sun, the seeds must 

 be regularly turned over. In Surinam and Trinidad 

 children are often employed for this work, and are busy 

 the whole day moving the beans by means of shovels, 

 made of a stick with a little platter. Towards sunset 



Photo. Awjuste Curiel. 

 FIG. 72. Sun-drying on wooden waggons, plantation " Susaunasdaal," Surinam. 



the beans are heaped together and covered with a canvas 

 sheet in order not to be wet by the dew, and the 

 waggons are pushed into the house, or, where movable 

 roofs are used, the roofs are run over the cocoa. 



(b) Drying by artificial heat. Though this system 

 has various disadvantages e.g. it makes the beans too 

 brittle, especially on the surface, and darkens the colour 

 still artificial heat must perforce be used in several 

 cocoa-growing countries where the weather is uncertain, 

 and rainy and cloudy days are so numerous that there 

 would be great risk of the cocoa becoming mildewed if 

 sun-drying were attempted. Accordingly, cocoa-dryers 



