Mr. George S. Hudson 187 
(3) Economy in utilizing a limited labour 
supply. 
(4) Saving in wastage and pilfering. 
(5). In greatly expediting the whole process, 
thereby saving both time and money. 
The expense of fermenting cacao efficiently 
stands in a very small proportion to the entire 
cost of. curing. Taking the actual labour 
wages for curing cacao as costing 1s. 6d. per 
cwt., it is probable that of this amount one 
penny per cwt. would cover the cost of fermen- 
tation. It is obvious, therefore, that when 
studying economy the cost of fermentation 
stands as a negligible quantity in comparison 
with drying, polishing, &c. 
Drying appliances and methods are quite as 
numerous as the different types‘of fermenting 
boxes, but in actual estate practice quite 90 
per cent., if not more, of the world’s cacao 
output is dried in the sun. Some few estates 
combine sun drying with a hot-air chamber for 
wet weather and to enable them to continue 
drying during the night in times of crop 
pressure, and within the last ten years many 
of the larger estates in the West Indies have, 
at a cost of £1,000 to £1,500, established 
rotary drying mae Wines: whok force heated air 
through the constantly agitated cacao, com- 
pleting both the curing and polishing pro- 
cess in thirty-six hours’ continuous work- 
ing. A fourth method worthy of notice is 
vacuum drying, which | believe has only 
