goes on. In the process of fermentation, Dr.
Chittenden says the beans are "stewed in their own juice." This may be
expressed less picturesquely but more accurately by saying the beans are
warmed by the heat of their own fermenting pulp, from which they absorb
liquid.

In Trinidad the cacao which the girls have scooped out into the baskets
is emptied into larger baskets, two of which are "crooked" on a mule's
back, and carried thus to the fermentary. In Surinam it is conveyed by
boat, and in San Thome by trucks, which run on Decauville railways.

The period of fermentation and the receptacle to hold the cacao vary
from country to country. With cacao of the criollo type only one or two
days fermentation is required, and as a result, in Ecuador and Ceylon,
the cacao is simply put in heaps on a suitable floor. In Trinidad and
the majority of other cacao-producing areas, where the forastero
variety predominates, from five to nine days are required. The cacao is
put into the "sweat" boxes and covered with banana or plantain leaves to
keep in the heat. The boxes may measure four feet each way and be made
of sweet-smelling cedar wood. As is usual with fermentation, the
temperature begins to rise, and if you thrust your hands into the
fermenting beans you find they are as hot and mucilaginous as a
poultice.

[Illustration: "SWEATING" BOXES, TRINIDAD.
The man is holding the wooden spade used for turning the beans.]

_Time._ _Temperature._
When put in 25 deg. C. or 77 deg. F.
After 1 day 30 deg. C. or 89 deg. F.
After 2 days 37 deg. C. or 98 deg. F.
After 3 days 47 deg. C. or 115 deg. F.

(After the third day the heat is maintained, but the temperature rises
very little.)

The temperature is the simplest guide to the amount of fermentation
taking place, and the uniformity of the temperature in all parts of the
mass is desirable, as showing that all parts are fermenting evenly. The
cacao is usually shovelled from one box to another every one or two
days. The chief object of this operation is to mix the cacao and prevent
merely local fermentation. To make mixing easy one ingenious planter
uses a cylindrical vessel which can be turned about on its axis.

[Illustration: FERMENTING BOXES, JAVA.
From the last box the beans are shovelled into the washing basin.
(Reproduced from van Hall's _Cocoa_, by permission of Messrs. Macmillan
& Co.)]

In other places, for example in Java, the boxes are arranged as a