6 BULLETIN 1113. II. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
fat, was submitted to 21 individuals and firms, of which IT were 
known producers of cacao butter in the United States. 
A majority of the leading establishments (according to classifi- 
cation based on the value of the cocoa, cacao butter and chocolate 
produced annually) were included among those receiving the ques- 
tionnaire. The replies and other correspondence received from 12 
firms and an association of manufacturers, representative of the 
cacao industry in America, gave an intimate and fairly compre- 
hensive picture of the situation. This was supplemented in Janu- 
ary, 1925, by a visit to several producers and a study of the manu- 
facturing processes at a leading cacao-pressing plant, and at the 
one establishment practicing the solvent-extraction of cocoa. 
Fifty-five establishments were primarily engaged in the manu- 
facture of cacao products at the time of the compiling of the latest 
published report of the Bureau of the Census (W), 11 and it is rea- 
sonably certain that most of these plants produce some by-product 
or surplus press cake and powder. Less than a dozen manufac- 
turers, however, have produced the low-grade cake in important 
quantities. 
PRODUCTION 
The following figures on the total production of low-grade cake 
are estimates based on data obtained in this study. Xo exact, 
nation-wide production survey has ever been made for this by- 
product. The figures obtained directly from producers were tabu- 
lated, and the estimates represent the correlation of these data with 
all other available information. 
It is concluded that 15,000 tons is a very conservative estimate of 
the quantity of low-grade or surplus cocoa cake produced during the 
calendar year 1923, and the total for that year may have exceeded 
21,000 tons. Production apparently increased during 1924, as reli- 
able reports from individuals engaged in the industry indicate that 
not less than 25,000 tons of the by-product cake was produced dur- 
ing that calendar year. The outlook for 1925 was for at least main- 
tained production. 
The greatest annual production of by-product cake actually re- 
ported by a single establishment was 3,000 tons for the year 1921. 
The segregation of production evident in the cocoa industry should 
be very favorable to profitable disposal of the low-priced by-product. 
A large part of the total tonnage produced is localized about such 
great distributing centers as New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. 
Two more or less distinct types of low-grade cocoa cake are being 
produced. The more common sort is pressed in the ordinary, older 
style of press used generally in the production of the powdered cocoa 
of commerce. Such presses are not highly efficient, considered solely 
from the point of view of the production of the cacao butter, and 
yield a press cake of rather high fat content, which is desirable 
when potable cocoa is being made. The by-product or low-grade 
cocoa cake produced in these presses contains from 15 or 1G to over 
20 per cent of fat. The appearance of ordinary cocoa press cake is 
shown in Figure 1; the brick at the left serves to indicate the relative 
11 Establishments producipg cacao products but engaged primarily in the manufacture 
of chocolate confectionery are not included. 
