The advantages of cacao shells as fodder, when a comparison with bran is established, are at once apparent. Two hundredweight (that is to say, about 220 lbs. averdupois) cost only from six to seven shillings, whilst the price of bran varies between nine and ten shillings. The husks also keep better, for after having been stored eighteen months, Professor Faelli found that they had undergone no alteration, whilst on the other hand bran had become sour. A further advantage possessed by the husk is that it will absorb four times its weight of water against three times absorbed by bran. Cattle not only readily get accustomed to the fodder but subsequently take to it with eagerness. The best results were obtained with Dutch, Swiss and Parmesan milch cows. After 10 days feeding the butter and milk-sugar had increased, as well as the daily average yield of milk from 44 to 49·5 kilogrammes. As soon as the feeding with cacao husk was discontinued the yield of milk decreased. Faelli concludes that cacao husk, which can be used as a fodder up to 4 kilog. daily, exercises a very favourable influence on milch cows, and he purposes to continue the investigation with horses. In a report on the Experimental Farms of Canada 1898, page 151, reference is made to the manurial value of the husks in enriching the soil with nitrogen and potash, a fact which had already been pointed out by Boussignault. The future use of the husks appears therefore to be ensured, and it is to be hoped that it will allow of a permanent consumption of this by-product. FOOTNOTES: [1] Of which the Central Province has 32,003 acres: North Western Province 3689 acres, North Central Province 25 acres, Province of Uva 2153 acres and Province of Sabaragamura 1918 acres. (From information kindly furnished in a letter of W. Freudenberg jun. German Consul at Colombo.) [2] See references at the end of this book. [3] Pronounced Chocolatl. [4] Revue des sciences pures et appliquées 1899, No. 4, page 127. [5] Vol. 7, Part 2: Diseases and Parasites of the Cacao Tree. With special reference to the conditions obtaining in the colonies belonging to Germany. By Dr. F. C. Faber, Berlin 1909, Parey & Springer. [6] Recently so-called fermenting-houses, as recommended by L. Kindt. (Cf. Kultur d. Kakaobaues und seine Schädlinge, Hambourg 1904), have answered very well. Yet the chemismus of fermentation is by no means sufficiently explained, and quantitatively and qualitatively, there is a lack of completeness in the analyses bearing on the process. [7] Special ovens (System Mayfarth) are also used, and sometimes complete heating and drying installations. [8] This had already been noticed by J. Hinchley Hart; Cacao (Trinidad 1892). It is therefore scarcely conceivable that the “Germination” theory should have held the field so long.