Mr. George S. Hudson 207 
aided agricultural departments and societies 
to try preliminary experiments with these 
machines, and according to results report ° 
favourably or unfavourably upon them. It is 
more than probable that the makers would be 
only too pleased to co-operate in these trials 
with a view to lessening the cost. The 
prospect of taking one’s cacao from the fer- 
menting box at 6 a.m. and getting it dried, 
polished, bagged up, and carted away by the 
afternoon will appeal to most planters as a 
most desirable state of things, which we may 
hope some day to realize, as others are 
apparently doing even now. 
WasHED Cacao. 
While one cannot doubt that the large cacao 
buyers in Europe and the United States are 
trained, keen experts at their trade, it is a 
curious point to the planter that they will pay 
2s. per cwt. more for “polished” or ‘“clayed” 
cacao, which only improves the superficial 
appearance and adds to the weight without 
improving the quality in any appreciable 
degree, and yet can only be induced to give 
the same advance on ordinary prices for 
‘“washed” cacao, which, according to general 
observation, frees the beans from gums and 
other extraneous matter (which should be of 
no use to the manufacturer) to the extent of 
from 4 per cent. to 15 per cent. in dry 
weight. My own experiments place the loss 
