152 CACAO 



The temperature maintained in the sweating-boxes 

 has been variously stated. In the Prize Essays it was 

 given as 100° F., rising to 118° and 120°, which, from 

 frequent personal readings under different conditions 

 I believe to be the average heat which can safely be 

 developed. In very large fermenting chambers the heat 

 rises somewhat higher, but there is danger in allowing it 

 to rise above 120°, as the quality of the produce is sure 

 to suffer. Frequent turnings have to be undertaken to 

 prevent too high a rise in temperature. 



Professor Harrison undertook in 1897 a long series of 

 analyses involving some three hundred or more operations, 

 which he kindly allowed the writer to publish in his 

 " Cacao," 2nd Ed., 1900, and he has again permitted it 

 to appear in the present pages. These analyses show 

 clearly the constituents of the fermented and unfermented 

 bean and the changes made by the operation. 



Although the detail of procedure in fermentation varies 

 considerably, taking one estate with another, yet it is 

 found that there is a great similarity of results obtained, 

 the length of time required for each estate being found by 

 experiment and continuous practice. Practice tells the 

 planter the exact condition to which he must bring his 

 beans before he attempts to dry them, a decision greatly 

 assisted by cutting sections of the beans under treatment, 

 in order to ascertain how far the fermentation has proceeded 

 and whether it has been regular and general. To describe 

 the condition in writing isadifficult task,and thatof the late 

 Dr. Chittenden, which is one of the best extant, is adopted. 

 He says : " At this stage, if fermentation has been properly 

 established, the cotyledons are found separated, and the 

 vinous liquor of the pulp, which passes through the 

 membraneous covering, occupies this space as well as the 

 cavities between the convolutions." This it is which has 

 so marked a physiological influence and affects its flavour, 

 the bean being, as may be said, " stewed in its own juice." 

 What is here described is, the writer believes, literally true, 

 and unless w6 can stew the bean in its own juice, or absorb 



