Mr. George S. Hudson 167 
field of cacao, (2) to find out if the cost 
of picking operations is not .excessive, and 
(3) to be in a position to check the. weight: - 
of dry cured cacao turned out in comparison 
with the amount of raw or “ wet” cacao enter- 
ing the sweating boxes. The latter reason 
only is germane to this essay. The adoption of 
some package of standard measure is necessary, 
and, in the West Indies, the North Ameri: 
can flour barrel is recommended as a uniform 
measure, being cheaply and easily obtainable and 
replaceable. Both the head and bottom of such 
a barrel are removed, and it is placed, supported 
by two short lengths of board which constitute 
a false bottom above the uncovered (No. 1) 
sweating box. When filled it is easily emptied 
by drawing away from underneath it one of the 
short-boards, when the contents fall into the 
sweating box below. For more accurate meas- 
urement it is convenient to theoretically divide 
the barrel into twenty-four parts—thus three- 
fourths of a barrel would be 38, half a barrel 42, 
and one quarter of a barrel 5. Subdivision may 
be carried further by a knowledge of how many 
cacao baskets go to a barrel: thus if four baskets 
usually fill the barrel, half a basket would equal 
#, of a barrel, somewhat less than half a basket 
would count as #,, and a lesser quantity just 
covering the bottom of an ordinary cacao basket 
would be equivalent to 3, of a barrel. The 
barrel is generally ‘‘heaped” to the natural 
angle of wet cacao, forming a mound the centre 
