CHAPTER XV 



DRYING APPARATUS, ETC. 



Until recent years the ordinary sun-drying floor formed 

 the principal means of drying cacao after fermentation. 

 Sir William Robinson, G.C.M.G., while Governor of Trinidad 

 in 1890, wrote a small pamphlet on the drying of cacao, 

 and tried to interest proprietors in methods of artificial 

 drying, and after stating that the crop of Trinidad for that 

 year showed a total of 14,000,000 lb., he said : " Yet there 

 are not half a dozen artificial drying houses, if as many, in 

 the whole colony." The crop for the year 1909 amounted 

 to a total of no fewer than 51,575,109 lb., and yet artificial 

 dryers are still few and far between, although some progress 

 has been made, the following being some of the most suc- 

 cessful attempts in this direction : 



(1) Hot-water heating. — In Trinidad the first attempts 

 at artificial drying were made with a plant constructed 

 after the manner of the ordinary horticultural method for 

 heating plant-houses in Europe. It was tried on two 

 estates, but had few imitators and is gradually going out 

 of use. 



(2) Steam heating was then tried, and in one or two 

 cases it met with considerable success. 



(3) Tray drying in an iron-cased machine was next 

 tried. The machine was made and erected by a London 

 firm, but was not.taken up by planters as it was considered 

 unsuitable. Good cacao, however, was made by this 

 apparatus. 



(4) Rotary dryers. — ^These have been erected in one or 

 two places in Trinidad, and users report that they have 

 doije excellent work. The machine made by John Gordon 



161 L 



