178 The Fermentation of Cacao 
(6) The preservation of heat and moisture 
by a thick leaf cover is a most necessary part 
of the process, but where a pure ferment is not 
added, the cover can be beneficially omitted 
from the first and second boxes to allow the 
“cacao fly” freer access to the beans to deposit 
fermentation germs on them. 
The actual process of work in the sweating 
house is small and may be described as follows: 
The current day’s picking of wet cacao in- 
variably goes into No. 1 sweating box, and 
for the sake of clarity we may assume the 
picking commences on Monday. On Tuesday 
morning Monday’s picking is overturned into 
No. 2 box, leaving No. 1 box empty to receive 
Tuesday’s picking. On Wednésday morning 
Monday’s picking is again inverted into No. 3 
box, Tuesday’s picking into No. 2 box, and 
No. 1 box is always kept free to receive the 
current day’s picking. This process is con- 
tinued until Monday’s picking reaches the fifth, 
sixth, seventh or eighth box, and the bottom 
temperature is found to be rapidly declining 
when it is removed from the sweating box to 
the drying house. Where large quantities of 
cacao are fermented under ‘‘ Fine Estates” 
conditions of curing (without the addition of a 
pure ferment), the first day’s picking, say 
Monday’s, will generally come out (from the 
sixth box) on Saturday morning, and is not 
unusually the worst fermented batch of the 
picking owing to the boxes being “ cold’”— 
