Part 14 (1/2)

IMPORTS OF CACAO b.u.t.tER.

Tons (of 1000 kilogrammes) 1912 1913 United States 1,842 1,634 Switzerland 1,821 1,634 Belgium 1,127 1,197 Austria-Hungary 1,062 1,190 Russia 955 1,197 England 495 934

The next table shows the imports (expressed in English tons) into the United Kingdom in more recent years:

IMPORTS OF CACAO b.u.t.tER.

Year 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 Tons 477 912 1512 599 962 675

The wholesale price of cacao b.u.t.ter has varied in the last six years from 1/3 per pound to 2/11 per pound, and was fixed in 1918 by the Food Controller at 1/6 per pound (retail price 2/- per pound). The control was removed in 1919, and immediately the wholesale price rose to 2/8 per pound.

_Cacao Sh.e.l.l._

Although I have described cacao b.u.t.ter as a by-product, the only true by-product of the combined cocoa and chocolate industry is cacao sh.e.l.l.

I explained in the previous chapter how it is separated from the roasted bean. As they come from the husking or winnowing machine, the larger fragments of sh.e.l.l resemble the sh.e.l.l of monkey-nuts (ground nuts or pea nuts), except that the cacao sh.e.l.ls are thinner, more brittle and of a richer brown colour. The sh.e.l.l has a pleasant odour in which a little true cocoa aroma can be detected. The small pieces of sh.e.l.l look like bran, and, if the sh.e.l.l be powdered, the product is wonderfully like cocoa in appearance, though not in taste or smell. As the raw cacao bean contains on the average about twelve and a half per cent. of sh.e.l.l, it is evident that the world production must be considerable (about 36,000 tons a year), and since it is not legitimately employed in cocoa, the brains of inventors have been busy trying to find a use for it. In some industries the by-product has proved on investigation to be of greater value than the princ.i.p.al product--a good instance of this is glycerine as a by-product in soap manufacture--but no use for the husk or sh.e.l.l of cacao, which gives it any considerable commercial value, has yet been discovered. There are signs, however, that its possible uses are being considered and appreciated.

For years small quant.i.ties of cacao sh.e.l.l, under the name of ”miserables,” have been used in Ireland and other countries for producing a dilute infusion for drinking. Although this ”cocoa tea” is not unpleasant, and has mild stimulating properties, it has never been popular, and even during the war, when it was widely advertised and sold in England under fancy names at fancy prices, it never had a large or enthusiastic body of consumers.

In normal times the cocoa manufacturer has no difficulty in disposing of his sh.e.l.l to cattle-food makers and others, but during 1915 when the train service was so defective, and transport by any other means almost impossible, the manufacturers of cocoa and chocolate were unable to get the sh.e.l.l away from their factories, and had large acc.u.mulations of it filling up valuable store s.p.a.ce. In these circ.u.mstances they attempted to find a use near at hand. It was tried with moderate success as a fuel and a considerable quant.i.ty was burned in a special type of gas-producer intended for wood.

Cacao sh.e.l.l has a high nitrogenous content, and if burned yields about 67 lbs. of pota.s.sium carbonate per ton. In the Annual Report of the Experimental Farms in Canada, (1898, p. 151 and 1899, p. 851,) accounts are given of the use of cacao sh.e.l.l as a manure. The results given are encouraging, and experiments were made at Bournville. At first these were only moderately successful, because the sh.e.l.l is extremely stable and decomposes in the ground very slowly indeed. Then the head gardener tried hastening the decomposition by placing the sh.e.l.l in a heap, soaking with water and turning several times before use. In this way the sh.e.l.l was converted into a decomposing ma.s.s before being applied to the ground, and gave excellent results both as a manure and as a lightener of heavy soils.

On the Continent the small amount of cacao b.u.t.ter which the sh.e.l.l contains is extracted from it by volatile solvents. The ”sh.e.l.l b.u.t.ter”

so obtained is very inferior to ordinary cacao b.u.t.ter, and as usually put on the market, has an unpleasant taste, and an odour which reminds one faintly of an old tobacco-pipe. In this unrefined condition it is obviously unsuitable for edible purposes.

Sh.e.l.l 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 sh.e.l.l is already practised on a large scale, and promises to be a profitable industry. Ordinary commercial samples of sh.e.l.l 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 sh.e.l.l have been made and suggested; thus it has been used for the production of a good coffee subst.i.tute, 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 sh.e.l.l as cattle food has been known for a long time, and is indicated in the following a.n.a.lysis by Smetham (in the Journal of the Lancas.h.i.+re Agricultural Society, 1914).

a.n.a.lYSIS OF CACAO Sh.e.l.l.

Water 9.30 Fat 3.83 Mineral Matter 8.20 Alb.u.minoids 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 sh.e.l.l occupies a good position when compared with other fodders:

FOOD UNITS.

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