vie The Fermentation of Cacao 
improvements, many of these hardly less 
important than the so-called fermentation of 
the seed, as a stage in its curing (plantation 
manufacture). 
Over thirty years ago, when I first took up 
the study of the cultivation and manufacture of 
tea, that industry was then in the very position 
of cacao to-day. We have reduced the area of 
cultivation but increased the outturn; we have 
improved the quality but reduced the cost. 
These are great triumphs of scientific precision 
as also of inventive ingenuity brought to bear 
on tea, but the same thing can be and will 
be accomplished with cacao. It seems to me 
possible that far too much merit is attributed to 
fermentation. That fermentation is necessary 
with the presently accepted method of curing 
goes without saying, but I would not be 
surprised were a new process introduced where 
fermentation could be entirely discontinued. 
The parallel with tea is worthy of the most 
careful study. But it is perhaps useless to 
speculate ; the opinions your authors advance 
are certain to be tested at the plantations, and 
out of the new experience thus gained must 
evolve the future system of manufacture. 
