1 Sepr., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 829 
# thorough mixing. This is sometimes accomplished by the labourers mixing 
and kneading them by treading them with their bare feet, as shown in the 
ilustration. This is known as “dancing the cocoa,” and renders the beans 
smooth and uniform in colour. It usually requires ten days or two weeks to 
finish the drying, depending’ on the weather; a great many attempts have been 
made to dry the beans artificially, with more or less satistactory results, but no 
general satisfactory drier has yet been designed, and the open dry-houses are in 
general use throughout the island. It only remains, however, for some 
ingenious mind to make a careful study of the requirements. 
The most difficult problem seems to be to get an artificial drier that will 
give the proper colour to the dried beans—the brick-red colour, and the 
property of retaining it is a very important feature in the cocoa market. 
The dried beans, when ready for market, are put in canvas bags holding 
about 150 lb., and the name of the plantation is stencilled on the bags, these 
brands becoming at times very prominent in the market. 
The manufacturing, which is invariably done in northern factories, consists 
of roasting the beans in a revolving cylinder ; this develops the aroma and fits 
them for crushing. After the beans are crushed they are screened to separate 
the “nibs” or crushed nuts from the shells. The nibs are then ground to a 
fine meal; this is put in sacks and placed in a powerful press, where it is 
subjected to heat and pressure, and the fat, known as “ cocoa-butter,” is 
squeezed out, and the hard substance left in the sack has only to be broken or 
powdered to become the pure chocolate, and this, more or less adulterated, is 
‘the chocolate of commerce. 
PREVENTION OF COFFEE DISEASES. 
In order to guard against the introduction of diseases into coffee 
plantations, Professor Dr. A. Zimmerman, Netherlands India, treated coffee 
thea intended for seed with sulphate of copper and lime. The germinating 
ower of the seed was certainly found to be slightly affected by the process, since, 
in the first place, the germination was delayed, and, secondly, after treatment for 
twelve hours only 76 per cent. of the seeds germinated ; after eighteen hours, 
only 71 per cent.; and after twenty-four hours, only 70 per cent. Still, the 
professor, in view of the object to be obtained, recommends the treatment, and 
advises the twenty-four hours’ steeping, since the difference in the result in the 
ease of eighteen hours is trifling. 
THE WORLD’S SUGAR CROP. 
The world’s sugar crop of 1900 (says the Treasury Bureau of Statistics) 
amounted to 5,950,000 tons of beet sugar and 2,850,000 tons of cane sugar— 
that is, more than two-thirds of the sugar now produced is manufactured from 
beets. The rapid growth in the production of sugar from beets is shown by 
the fact that in 1840 beets supplied less than 5 per cent. of the world’s sugar 
consumption ; in 1850, this was 14: per cent.; in 1870, 34 per cent.; and in 1890, 
67-71 per cent. In 1840 the total sugar consumption in the world was only 
1,150,000 tons, as compared with 5,702,000 tons in 1890 and 8,800,000 tons in 
1900. In the year ending September, 1900, Germany produced 1,950,000 tons. 
of beet sugar, and France and Austria-Hungary each over 9,000,000 tons; Russia 
made 890,000 tons, and Belgium and Holland 340,000 and 170,000 tons 
respectively. Out of the total world’s product of beet sugar, “ other countries” 
—including the United States—only aggregated 400,000 tons. Java exported. 
the largest crop of cane sugar, or 670,000 tons; and Cuba comes next with 
500,000 tons; Louisiana made 340,000 tons, and Hawaii 230,000 tons. 
