B. Sc. (B'ham.), F.I.C., B. Sc. (Lond.)
Member of the Society of Public Analysts; Member of the Societyof Chemical Industry; Fellow of the Institute of Hygiene.
Research Chemist to Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Ltd.
Although there are several excellent scientificworks dealing in a detailed manner withthe cacao bean and its products from the variousview points of the technician, there is no comprehensivemodern work written for the general reader. Untilthat appears, I offer this little book, which attempts tocover lightly but accurately the whole ground, includingthe history of cacao, its cultivation and manufacture.This is a small book in which to treat of so large asubject, and to avoid prolixity I have had to generalise.This is a dangerous practice, for what is gained inbrevity is too often lost in accuracy: brevity may bealways the soul of wit, it is rarely the body of truth.The expert will find that I have considered him in thatI have given attention to recent developments, and ifI have talked of the methods peculiar to one place asthough they applied to the whole world, I ask him toconsider me by supplying the inevitable variations andexceptions himself.
The book, though short, has taken me a long time towrite, having been written in the brief breathing spacesof a busy life, and it would never have been completedbut for the encouragement I received from Messrs.Cadbury Bros., Ltd., who aided me in every possibleway. I am particularly indebted to the present LordMayor of Birmingham, Mr. W.A. Cadbury, for adviceand criticism, and to Mr. Walter Barrow for readingthe proofs. The members of the staff to whom I amindebted are Mr. W. Pickard, Mr. E.J. Organ, Mr.T.B. Rogers; also Mr. A. Hackett, for whom thediagrams in the manufacturing section were originallymade by Mr. J.W. Richards. I am grateful to Messrs.J.S. Fry and Sons, Limited, for information andphotographs. In one or two cases I do not know whomto thank for the photographs, which have been culledfrom many sources. I have much pleasure in thankingthe following: Mr. R. Whymper for a large number ofTrinidad photos; the Director of the ImperialInstitute and Mr. John Murray for permission to usethree illustrations from the Imperial Institute seriesof handbooks to the Commercial Resources of theTropics; M. Ed. Leplae, Director-General of Agriculture,Belgium, for several photos, the blocks ofwhich were kindly supplied by Mr. H. Hamel Smith,of Tropical Life; Messrs. Macmillan and Co. for fivereproductions from C.J.J. van Hall's book on Cocoa;and West Africa for four illustrations of the GoldCoast.
The photographs reproduced on pages 2, 23, 39,47, 49 and 71 are by Jacobson of Trinidad, on pages85 and 86 by Underwood & Underwood of London,and on page 41 by Mrs. Stanhope Lovell of Trinidad.
The industry with which this book deals is changingslowly from an art to a science. It is in a transitionperiod (it is one of the humours of any live industrythat it is always in a transition period). There aremany indications of scientific progress in cacaocultivation; and now that, in addition to the experimentaland research departments attached to the principalfirms, a Research Association has been formed for thecocoa and chocolate industry, the increased amount ofdiffused scientific knowledge of cocoa and chocolatemanufacture should give rise to interesting developments.
A.W. KNAPP.
Birmingham,February, 1920.