stone with an
iron roller. The grinding is performed over a chafing-dish of burning
charcoal, as it is necessary, for ease of grinding, to keep the paste in
a liquid condition.]

_Early European Manufacture._

The conversion of these small scale operations into the early factory
process is well shown in the plate which I reproduce above from _Arts
and Sciences_, published in 1768.

[Illustration: WOMEN GRINDING CHOCOLATE.
From Squier "Nicaragua"]

A certain atmosphere of dreamy intellectuality is associated with
coffee, so that the roasting of it is felt to be a romantic occupation.
The same poetic atmosphere surrounded the manufacture of drinking
chocolate in the early days: the writers who revealed the secrets of its
preparation were conscious that they were giving man a new aesthetic
delight and the subject is treated lovingly and lingeringly. One, Pietro
Metastasio, went so far as to write a "cantata" describing its
manufacture. He describes the grinding as being done by a vigorous man,
and truly, to grind by hand is a very laborious operation, which happily
in more recent times has been performed by the use of power-driven
mills.

Operations on a large scale followed the founding of Fry and Sons at
Bristol in 1728, and of Lombart, "la plus ancienne chocolaterie de
France," in Paris in 1760. In Germany the first chocolate factory was
erected at Steinhunde in 1756, under the patronage of Prince Wilhelm,
whilst in America the well-known firm of Walter Baker and Co. began in a
small way in 1765. From the methods adopted in these factories have
gradually developed the modern processes which I am about to describe.

MODERN PRACTICE.

As the early stages in the manufacture of cocoa and of chocolate are
often identical, the processes which are common to both are first
described, and then some individual consideration is given to each.

(_a_) _Arrival at the Factory._

The cacao is largely stored in warehouses, from which it is removed as
required. It has remarkable keeping properties, and can be kept in a
good store for several years without loss of quality. Samples of cacao
beans in glass bottles have been found to be in perfect condition after
thirty years. Some factories have stores in which stand thousands of
bags of cacao drawn from many ports round the equator. There is
something very pleasing about huge stacks of bags of cacao seen against
the luminous white walls of a well-lighted store. The s