Mr. George S. Hudson 219 
useful experimenting in the direction of vinegar- 
making in the Tropics. It is probable that a 
series of four tanks built of concrete, and lined 
with glazed earthenware or slate, fitted with 
acid-resisting joints, would fulfil an ordinary 
estate’s requirements. They should have tight- 
fitting covers to exclude dirt, dust and vermin. 
Cacao ALCOHOL. — 
The fermenting juice of cacao fulfils. all the 
conditions necessary to the making of a potable 
spirit by distillation, and even of the making 
of wine. Unless, however, a superior and 
high-priced liquor were produced (and hitherto 
all cacao literature is silent on this point) it is 
probable that its production would not be 
profitable.’ It would be most interesting to 
ascertain what sort of a new drink cacao juice is 
capable of producing, and it is a matter that a 
Tropical Agricultural Department with a little 
initiative might well follow up, containing as 
it does the prospect of creating a market for 
several hundred thousands of gallons of liquor 
1In Parad, I understand, many of the planters pay 
more attention to producing an intoxicating drink from 
the green cacao than to the commercial beans them- 
selves. { am told that the characteristic flattened 
shape of Pard cacao is due to the pressure it undergoes 
in the cylinders made of Indian woven matting, which 
by means of weights, or hand-pulling at the end (as 
when making “farine’” or cassava, which has to be 
freed. of its poisonous juices), squeezes out almost the 
last drop of liquid in the mass.—H. H. S 
