158 The Fermentation of Cacao 
an increased price averaging 2s. per cwt. net. 
The question that each planter is apt to ask 
himself on this subject is, ‘‘ Is the game worth 
the candle?” Well, on a crop of 300 bags 
(of 180 Ib. each) it means an extra net profit 
of £45 to men who are already turning out 
a relatively good sample. Many estates 
could improve the price they realize by twice 
as much again, z.e., 4S. cwt., but, writing as an 
old agricultural instructor, I am more sanguine 
of inducing the man, who is already doing 
creditably, to reach up to higher results than of 
inducing the man who is in the habit of throw- 
ing away’ £50 a year by exporting poor cacao 
to amend his ways. 
Turning to the merchants’ part in cacao 
curing, where the reward offered for good work 
is so much larger, and the men engaged in it 
are supposed to be very keen on an extra 
profit, one should hope for good results, were 
it not that the merchants’ past record in this 
matter is such an unpromising one. It is not 
unusual for a single cacao-buying firm in the 
West Indies, Brazil or West Africa, to pur- 
chase, cure and export many thousand bags of 
cacao each year. Owing to the prevalence of 
cacao stealing, most cacao-producing countries 
have laws prohibiting the purchase’ of freshly 
picked cacao, and, although this complicates . 
the curing question for the merchant, yet one 
must acknowledge the extreme usefulness of 
this precaution in bringing offenders to justice ; 
