viz FERMENTATION AND DRYING 225 



required temperature (about 45 C.) is obtained and 

 then remains nearly constant. 



The advantages of this apparatus are, that no steam- 

 engine is necessary, and that, according to the weather, 

 the roofs can be opened and the cocoa sun-dried, or 

 closed and the furnace lighted and the cocoa dried 

 artificially, thus avoiding the necessity of transporting 

 the cocoa to another place when the weather is unfavour- 

 able and the heat of the sun insufficient. 



On other estates in Trinidad the air under the 

 drying-floor is heated by making it travel along hot 

 pipes, which are heated by a furnace. The hot air 

 passes through the openings of the drying-floor and 

 through the cocoa. This system closely resembles that 

 of the " Huizer " apparatus, but the drying-floor does not 

 move, and the pipes are not heated by hot water, but 

 directly by the heat of the furnace. And, of course, 

 it is at the same time suitable for sun-drying, in the 

 same way as the installation on the Centeno plantation. 



In Java and in Ceylon, " curing -houses" generally 

 are used. 1 The most common type consists of two 

 chambers, of which the lower one receives the hot air, 

 the upper one the fermented seeds. The floor of this 

 upper chamber is covered with coir matting. The air in 

 the lower chamber is heated by means of a furnace, and 

 then passes through the drying-floor and the seeds, and, 

 finally, the moist air is drawn off by means of a fan. 



Claying and dancing. In Western Venezuela it 

 is customary before fermentation to dry the cocoa for 

 one day in the sun on the drying-floor. When it is 

 still hot it is gathered into heaps and covered with 

 banana leaves or put into a primitive "sweating" box. 

 It is allowed to ferment for one day only, and then 

 immediately clayed, or stained, as it is sometimes called. 

 This is done in the following way. A certain quantity 

 of cocoa is thrown on to a sheet, held by two workmen. 

 On the cocoa a quantity of a dry, red earth is scattered, 

 and the sheet is then moved to and fro until the earth 



1 Wright, Cocoa, p. 137. 



