THE FUTURE OF CACAO PLANTING. 



203 



expense of our own. In a word, I consider it is quite unpatriotic of 

 Trinidad not to cause this amount to fall into its own pocket ; the trade 

 and prosperity of the Empire demand that it should do so, because then 

 the inhabitants could order more goods from us, and send us more 

 produce to sell. 



Why do planters never put the trees in triangles instead of in squares 

 when planting ? Triangular planting enables you to get more trees into 

 the acre, covers the ground more evenly with less crowding to the tree- 

 tops, and has, so far as I have heard, nothing against it except — no one 

 seems to plant that way. 



It seems to me that the system of vacuum-drying will be adopted in 

 the end on all large estates where the crop is sufficient to keep several 

 chambers always busy. The cost is no heavier than that of the best 

 known air-dryer, even when one chamber only is used, and when several 

 chambers are used with only one pump and set of apparatus — for one 

 pump can easily work several chambers — then the cost is comparatively 

 low. There is less liability to scorch, and the very action of the vacuum 

 that dries the bean by drawing out the moisture helps to plump them up 

 and make them less shrivelled than when the moisture is expelled by 

 other means. 



In referring to the use of vacuum- drying installations for cacao, it 

 would be interesting to consider the advantages that the makers of this 

 apparatus claim for it. One can but admit that these claims have been 

 entirely borne out in regard to most materials, such as fruit, rubber, 

 chemicals, food-stuffs, &c. The experience of its use for cacao is how- 

 ever as yet so limited that it must be left to the common-sense of the 

 individual to decide whether it is applicable in a like degree. The main 

 advantage of vacuum- drying is that, by removing the pressure of the 

 atmosphere, the boiling point of water is reduced to about half, or under 

 half, the normal temperature. As the drying of cacao is a removal of the 

 water contained, it follows that the work can be accomplished at an 

 extremely rapid rate, and yet at a lower temperature than is often 

 employed in the atmospheric or air-drying stove. The process is, of 

 course, very economical, because the whole of the steam put into the 

 apparatus is utilized, whereas with the air- dryer a very large proportion of 

 heat is wasted in the excess of air which passes out of the stove still warm. 



A further advantage lies in the fact that the conditions are always 

 normal in a vacuum stove. The operator of the vacuum stove is, as it 

 were, part of the machine, which creates its own "atmosphere," which 

 is always the same. I refer to this as an atmosphere, whereas as a 

 matter of fact there is no atmosphere, but I do this because it is the 

 variable nature of the atmosphere that one encounters on the plantation 

 which causes most of the trouble. I consequently find it a convenient 

 expression in making comparison. 



Being without air the vacuum stove is consequently without the im- 

 purities of the atmosphere. It is free from variable humidity. The 

 disadvantage of the vacuum stove at present is its comparatively unknown 

 action in regard to cacao. I can say, however, that one or more machines 

 in use in the German Cameroons seem to have given every satisfaction ; 

 at any rate repeat orders have been received by the makers. 



