200 The Fermentation of Cacao 
polish is secured at the same time by the long- 
continued slow rotary motion. It is also 
claimed that there is an advantage of resultant 
weight over sun-drying by this process, and 
its users more or less endorse this claim. The 
machine may be briefly described as one or 
two large. cylinders rotated slowly by a steam 
engine which also works a powerful hot-air fan. 
These cylinders have a hollow axle, with radial 
perforated tubes through which the hot air is 
forced in all directions from the interior to the 
exterior of the slowly moving cacao. There 
are also specially designed protuberances from 
the core that facilitate the thorough mixing 
and polishing of the mass. I have seen several 
of these machines at work and they have given 
satisfaction, although considered to be dis- 
tinctly costly. Points that have been raised 
against them are: the large amount of wood 
fuel they consume, and the liability of boiler 
tubes to’ burn out and require replacing within 
two years. On many thoroughly developed 
estates in Grenada the fuel question is becom- 
ing a serious expense and difficulty, but in 
less developed cacao countries fuel should be 
plentiful for many years to come. It must 
be noted as a very salient feature of the 
subject that most estates possessing ‘‘ Gordon ” 
Dryers are usually content to use them as a 
‘‘stand-by” and cure a large proportion of 
their crops by sun-drying. 
For smaller properties the ‘Hamel Smith ” 
