136 The Fermentation of Cacao 
the sun —are very different to those utilised 
in the past. 
This rapid drying is not resorted to because 
it is considered that better cacao is obtained 
by its use, but because the old method would 
take up too much room in the sheds, now that 
the cacao plantations have increased so much 
in size, In the old days indeed, cacao was a 
secondary product of the coffee plantation, in 
fact even at the very commencement of the 
industry, the cacao was sometimes dried in 
the sun when the coffee crops were abundant. 
The mode of fermentation, however, has 
practically remained the same, except that now 
the beans are usually placed in a special 
fermentation or sweating-house; that is to 
say, a stone building, roofed with tiles, and 
divided into five to eight compartments or 
boxes made entirely of wood. 
In each of these sweating-boxes the cacao 
remains lying in a heap for the space of one 
day, to be turned into the next the following 
-morning, when at the same time care is taken 
that the beans which were at first on the top 
now go to the bottom. 
The floor of the boxes, which is also of 
wood, is bored with a number of holes; it is 
built over a cement floor which slopes slightly 
forwards. This enables the water or juice, 
which exudes from the fruit pulp by reason 
of the pressure of the heap, to flow into gutters 
alongside of the boxes, and thence outside. 
