humb, the
whole cracks up into crisp pieces. It is now quite easy to blow away the
thin pieces of shell because they offer a greater surface to the air and
are lighter than the compact little lumps or "nibs" which are left
behind. This illustrates the principle of all shelling or husking
machines.

(_e_) _Breaking the Bean into Fragments._

The problem is to break down the bean to just the right size. The pieces
must be sufficiently small to allow the nib and shell readily to part
company, but it is important to remember that the smaller the pieces of
shell and nib, the less efficient will the winnowing be, and it is usual
to break the beans whilst they are still warm to avoid producing
particles of extreme fineness. The breaking down may be accomplished by
passing the beans through a pair of rollers at such a distance apart
that the bean is cracked without being crushed. Or it may be effected in
other ways, _e.g._, by the use of an adjustable serrated cone revolving
in a serrated conical case. In the diagram they are called kibbling
cones.

[Illustration: SECTION THROUGH KIBBLING CONES AND GERM SCREENS.]

(_f_) _Separating the Germs._

About one per cent. of the cacao bean fragments consists of "germs." The
"germ" is the radicle of the cacao seed, or that part of the cacao seed
which on germination forms the root. The germs are small and rod-shaped,
and being very hard are generally assumed to be less digestible than the
nib. They are separated by being passed through revolving gauze drums,
the holes in which are the same size and shape as the germs, so that the
germs pass through whilst the nib is retained. If a freakish carpenter
were to try separating shop-floor sweepings, consisting of a jumble of
chunks of wood (nib), shavings (shell) and nails (germ) by sieving
through a grid-iron, he would find that not only the nails passed
through but also some sawdust and fine shavings. So in the above machine
the finer nib and shell pass through with the germ. This germ mixture,
known as "smalls" is dealt with in a special machine, whilst the larger
nib and shell are conveyed to the chief winnowing machine. In this
machine the mixture is first sorted according to size and then the nib
and shell separated from one another. The mixture is passed down long
revolving cylindrical sieves and encounters a larger and larger mesh as
it proceeds, and thus becomes sieved into various sizes. The separation
of the shell from th