usly unsuitable for edible purposes.

Shell contains about one per cent. of _theobromine_ (dimethylxanthine).
This is a very valuable chemical substance (see remarks in chapter on
Food Value of Cocoa and Chocolate), and the extraction of theobromine
from shell is already practised on a large scale, and promises to be a
profitable industry. Ordinary commercial samples of shell contain from
1.2 to 1.4 per cent. of theobromine. Those interested should study the
very ingenious process of Messrs. Grousseau and Vicongne (Patent No.
120,178). Many other uses of cacao shell have been made and suggested;
thus it has been used for the production of a good coffee substitute,
and also, during the shortage of sawdust, as a packing material, but its
most important use at the present time is as cattle food, and its most
important abuse as an adulterant of cocoa.

The value of cacao shell as cattle food has been known for a long time,
and is indicated in the following analysis by Smetham (in the Journal of
the Lancashire Agricultural Society, 1914).

ANALYSIS OF CACAO SHELL.

Water 9.30
Fat 3.83
Mineral Matter 8.20
Albuminoids 18.81
Fibre 13.85
Digestible Carbohydrates 46.01
------
100.00
------

From these figures Smetham calculates the food units as 102, so that it
is evident that cacao shell occupies a good position when compared with
other fodders:

FOOD UNITS.

Linseed cake 133
Oatmeal 117
Bran 109
English wheat 106
_Cacao shells_ 102
Maize (new crop) 99
Meadow hay 68
Rice husks 43
Wheat straw 41
Mangels 12

These analytical results have been supported by practical feeding
experiments in America and Germany (see full account in Zipperer's book,
_The Manufacture of Chocolate_). Prof. Faelli, in Turin, obtained, by
giving cacao shell to cows, an increase in both the quantity and quality
of the milk. More recent experience seems to indicate that it is unwise
to put a very high percentage of cacao shell in a cattle food; in small
quantities in compound feeding cakes, etc., as an appetiser it has been
used for years with good results. (Further particulars will be found in
_Cacao Shells as Fodder_, by A.W. Knapp, _Tropical Life_, 1916, p. 154,
and in _The Separation and Uses of Cac