DRYING APPARATUS, ETC. 169 



or cement floors used in drying coffee. Cacao so dried is 

 never of the same ultimate quality as when dried upon a 

 wooden floor. In the same way coffee dried upon a wooden 

 floor can never equal similar raw material dried on a 

 cemented floor or platform. The reason is that coffee 

 submits readily to an amount of heat which would certainly 

 spoil cacao, and vice versd. In drying by the aid of sun 

 alone, first-class work can be accomplished, if the weather 

 is favourable ; but if the weather is unfavourable for 

 several days at a time, a very large amount of loss occurs, 

 as it is impossible to prevent cacao passing into a bad 

 condition when there is insufficient sun heat to stop the 

 growth of the mould fungi which persistently attack it 

 when in a wet or semi-dried state. It is this possible loss 

 which the planter insures against when he invests in 

 apparatus for drying without the aid of sun heat, and 

 those not in possession of such appliances must be con- 

 tent to lose a large percentage of their crop in an unfavour- 

 able season, or if not lose it totally, to lose its value 

 by some 30 to 40 per cent, of ruling prices. 



Where a large extent of cacao is under cultivation, or, 

 as one correspondent advises, where five hundred or more 

 bags are produced per annum, it is clearly not economy 

 to rely upon sun heat alone for the drying and ciu:ing 

 of cacao. 



For central factories the larger forms of dryer are an 

 absolute necessity, and there can be little doubt that well- 

 organised co-operative factories for drying and curing the 

 produce of the cacao field would be a great boon to the 

 smaller growers in all countries, and the produce exported 

 from such countries would be much higher in value owing 

 to uniformity in the method of drying and curing. The 

 system of central factories has worked well with sugar- 

 cane, coffee, coco-nuts, &c., and there appears no serious 

 objection to its being utilised for the cacao interest, where 

 conditions would admit of successful operation. 



Up to the present time in Trinidad, however, with an 

 annual crop of 50,000,000 lb. of cacao, the greater portion 



