164 The Fermentation of Cacao 
may be briefly stated that when one considers 
all the difficulties of his case, the small native 
grower is not in a position to economically 
turn out fine parcels of cured cacao, and if he 
were he would not do it. 
Practical Estate Cacao Curing. 
Picxinc Unrire Pons. 
a the valuations of Mincing Lane brokers. 
‘Fine Estates” West Indian cacao (exclud- 
ie the “fancy marks” of Trinidad and 
Montserrat) it is common to find the words 
‘part unripe” insisted on and repeated over 
long periods. No doubt the same com- 
ment is applied to similar cacao from Bahia, 
the West Coast (Africa) and St. Thomé. On 
examining samples of this cacao, viz., fine 
West Indian, there will be found a certain 
percentage of the seed (say 10 per cent. to 
20 per cent.) that are flat. On “breaking” 
these seeds, although the break is more brittle’ 
and the testa or skin of the bean separates 
more easily than that of similar beans of unfer- 
mented cacao, yet they exhibit an undesir- 
able compact fracture of violet colour unin- 
terrupted by the lacune or air spaces found 
between the convolutions of the cotyledons. of 
higher class cacao. Even the cacao highly 
fermented by Dr. Lucius Nicholls’ process 
still contains a similar proportion of these flat 
seeds. While there is therefore every excuse 
