160 The Fermentation of Cacao 
towns and villages, there is hardly a chance of 
fermentation taking place. 
To cacao-buying merchants, then, Dr. 
Nicholls has pointed a way towards first-class 
results, by the isolation and preparation for 
everyday use of a pure cacao ferment con- 
taining those yeast forms which our experi- 
ments have proved to be the most vigorous 
and beneficial; and further, by providing a 
prescription (which any chemist should dis- 
pense for a few pence) of a suitable medium - 
that will enable this ferment to flourish by 
spraying or sprinkling the combined ferment 
and medium on‘either freshly picked or partly 
cured cacao. It is not unreasonable to hope 
that with the co-operation of Government 
Agricultural Departments in cultivating and 
distributing this ferment from their laboratories, 
the preparation of merchant's cacao should 
be revolutionized, and that of pianter’s cacao 
much improved. On a very moderate estimate 
the merchant should, by this process, allied to 
better drying methods, increase the value of 
each 1,000 bags he exports by £300. On 
the supposition that cacao-buying firms handle 
half the cacao output of the world, it can easily 
be seen that the potentialities of Dr. Nicholls’ 
formula would run into larger figures of export 
values than I care to estimate. 
It is a matter of common belief among cacao 
men that the manufacturers are not averse to 
a large quantity of low-class unfermented cacao 
