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by the highest branches withering, and this process continues 
until the entire tree is invaded and dies in the course of a year 
or so. Sometimes it attacks odd trees, at others groups, but 
the result is ever the same—death. The malady is vulgarly 
known as ‘‘ gorgojo,’’ or weevil, as perforations appear, but 
whether a weevil is the cause remains to be ascertained. I 
am inclined to think the evil starts in the root, judging from 
the way the extremities of the branches first succumb. 
If a practical expert on cocoa diseases would undertake to 
examine and point out the remedy for this evil, he would not 
only render a signal service and enhance his reputation thereby, 
but I am certain that the Agricultural Society of Bogota would 
remunerate him handsomely. 
Mr. S. H. Davies (Messrs. Rowntree and Co.): Mr. Chair- 
man—TI would like first to congratulate you on the extra- 
ordinary results which have accrued under your Governorship 
in the production of cocoa on the Gold Coast. The economic 
importance of that result is not confined to your Colony, 
but is of enormous importance to the industry. I wanted 
to say a word about the only debatable point, and that is 
the curing and preparation of cocoa. An immense amount 
of nonsense has been written on the fermentation of cocoa, 
but we know that the actual principles which underlie the fer- 
mentation of cocoa are extremely simple. It is exactly like the 
fermentation of any fruit. In the first few hours of fer- 
mentation you have the organisms which are found on the pod 
at the time they are cut down; these are known locally as wild 
yeasts, and they grow first. Then their place is taken by a 
true yeast, which gives rise to a very large amount of alcohol. 
That is finally replaced by other organisms, and especially by 
an organism which is brought to the pods by the vinegar fly. 
Bearing this in mind, I think with every respect to my dis- 
tinguished French colleague who spoke of replacing fermen- 
tation by sterilization by steam, that the latter would not effect 
all the objects gained by fermentation. In fermentation in a 
close mass you have the products percolating all the time 
through the skin, and modifying the cocoa. It is true that 
with sterilization, if you allow plenty of air to play on the 
cocoa you can do all that is necessary in the way of changing 
the violet or slate coloured bean to a brown or red bean, but 
you do not get the products of alcoholic and acetic fermen- 
tation percolating into the bean. I think that we are now 
rather at the parting of the ways; it is being suggested on 
many hands that it would be well to do away with fermentation 
and to replace it by immediate drying, but these methods are 
not in themselves sufficient entirely to replace fermentation, and 
