Dr. A. Schulte im Hofe 119 
The still warm beans. must then at once be 
transferred to boxes or made up into large 
heaps, to prevent the beans from cooling, and 
when this is done the cacao should be pro- 
tected from cooling down too rapidly. In 
order that the heat may be retained as long 
as possible, it would, perhaps, be best to post- 
pone disturbing the heaps until the second 
day, when they may be turned over with 
shovels, as doing so lessens the danger of 
over oxidation owing to the cooling of the 
beans, provided that oxidation has not already 
set in to any considerable extent in the drying 
drum. 
The process of oxidation at moderately high 
temperatures may be more prolonged without 
running too great a risk, when the drying is 
carried out in drying-houses on two trays 
placed one over the other, and, as is done when 
malting, the partially dried cacao on the upper 
tray is allowed to fall through to the lower one 
to complete the drying process. As soon as 
the cacao is found to contain only 15 per cent. 
of moisture, it is spread out so as to form a 
layer about 15 to 20 cm. (6 to 8 in.) deep, and 
as far as possible the temperature is kept at 
10° to as” C. (nos te 113° F.). Deine this 
enables one to maintain an even, temperature 
Again, as soon as the amount of moisture in the beans 
is excessive, they go mouldy during the process of 
oxidation: a sufficient indication of their containing 
too much moisture. 
