 Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1 of Cocoa and Chocolate, their history from plantation to consumer by Arthur W. Knapp. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Allison Hester of Athens, Georgia. Cocoa and Chocolate, their history from plantation to consumer by Arthur W. Knapp. Preface. Although there are several excellent scientific works dealing in a detailed manner with the Kakao Bean and its products from the various viewpoints of the technician, there is no comprehensive modern work written for the general reader. Until that appears, I offer this little book, which attempts to cover lightly but accurately the whole ground, including the history of Kakao, its cultivation, and manufacture. This is a small book in which to treat of so large a subject, and to avoid prolixity I have had to generalize. This is a dangerous practice for what is gained in brevity is too often lost in accuracy. Brevity may be always the soul of wit, it is rarely the body of truth. The expert will find that I have considered him and that I have given attention to recent developments, and, if I have talked of the methods peculiar to one place as though they applied to the whole world, I ask him to consider me by supplying the inevitable variations and exceptions himself. The book, though short, has taken me a long time to write, having been written in the brief breeding spaces of a busy life, and it would never have been completed, but for the encouragement I received from Monseur's Cadbury Brothers, who aided me in every way, I am particularly indebted to the present Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Mr. W. A. Cadbury for advice and criticism, and to Mr. Walter Barrow for the reading proofs. The members of the staff to whom I am indebted are Mr. W. Pickard, Mr. E. J. Orgen, Mr. T. B. Rogers, also Mr. A. Hackett, for whom the diagrams in the manufacturing section were originally made by Mr. J. W. Richards. I am grateful to Monseur's J. S. Brie and Sons Limited for information and photographs. In one or two cases, I do not know whom to thank for the photographs, which have been culled from many sources. I have much pleasure in thanking the following. Mr. R. Weimper for a large number of Trinidad photos, the Director of the Imperial Institute, and Mr. John Murray for permission to use three illustrations from the Imperial Institute series of handbooks to the commercial resources of the tropics. Mr. Ed LaPle, Director General of Agriculture, Belgium for several photos, the blocks of which were kindly supplied by Mr. Hamel Smith of Tropical Life, Monseur's Macmillan & Company for five reproductions, from C. J. J. Van Hall's book on cocoa and West Africa for four illustrations of the Gold Coast. The industry with which this book deals is changing slowly from an art to a science. It is in a transition period. It is one of the humors of any live industry that is always in a transition period. There are many indications of scientific progress and cacao cultivation, and now that, in addition to the experimental and research departments attached to the principal firms, a research association has also been formed for the cocoa and chocolate industry, the increased amount of diffused scientific knowledge of cocoa and chocolate manufacture should give rise to interesting developments. A. W. Knapp, Birmingham, February 1920. End of preface. Introduction In a few short chapters I propose to give a plain account of the production of cocoa and chocolate. I assume that the reader is not a specialist and knows little or nothing of the subject, and hence both the style of writing and the treatment of the subject will be simple. At the same time, I assume that the reader desires a full and accurate account and not a vague story in which the difficulties are ignored. I hope that, as a result of this method of dealing with my subject, even experts will find much in the book that is of interest and value. After a brief survey of the history of cocoa and chocolate, I shall begin with the growing of the cacao bean, and follow the cacao in its career until it becomes the finished product ready for consumption. Cacao or cocoa The reader will have noted above the spelling cacao, and to those who think it curious, I would say that I do not use this spelling from pedantry. It is an imitation of the word which the Mexicans used for this commodity as early as 1500, and when spoken by Europeans, is apt to sound like the howl of a dog. The Mexicans called this tree from which cacao is obtained cocoa-out. In the great Swedish scientist Linnaeus, the father of botany, was named in classifying, about 1735, the trees and plants known in his time he christened it theobroma cacao, by which name it is called by botanists to this day. Theobroma is Greek for food of the gods. Why Linnaeus paid this extraordinary compliment to cacao is obscure, but it has been suggested that he was inordinately fond of the beverage prepared from it, the cup which both cheers and satisfies. It will be seen from the above that the species name is cacao, and one can understand that Englishmen finding it difficult to get their insular lips around this outlandish word lazily called it cocoa. In this book I shall use the words cacao, cocoa, and chocolate as follows. Cacao. When I refer to the cacao tree, the cacao pod, or the cacao bean or seed, by the single word cacao I imply the raw product, cacao beans, in bulk. Coco, when I refer to the powder manufactured from the roasted bean by pressing out part of the butter. The word is too well established to be changed, even if one wished it. As we shall see later in the chapter on adulteration, it has come legally to have a very definite significance. If this method of distinguishing between cacao and cocoa were the accepted practice, the perturbation which occurred in the public mind during the war in 1916 as to whether manufacturers were exporting cocoa to neutral countries would not have arisen. It should have been spelled cacao for the statements referred to the raw beans and not to the manufactured beverage. Had this been done it would have been unnecessary for the manufacturers to point out that cocoa powder was not being so exported and that they naturally did not sell the raw cacao bean. Chocolate. This word is given a somewhat wider meaning. It signifies any preparation of roasted cacao beans without abstraction of butter. It practically always contains sugar and added cacao butter and is generally prepared in molded form. It is used either for eating or drinking. Cacao beans and coconuts. In old manuscripts the word cacao is spelled in all manner of ways but C-O-C-O-A survived them all. This curious inversion, cocoa, is to be regretted for it has led to a confusion which could not otherwise have arisen. But for this spelling no one would have dreamed of confusing the totally unrelated bodies cacao and the milky coconut footnote. You note that I spell it C-O-C-O-N-U-T, not C-O-C-O-A-N-U-T for the name is derived from the Spanish cocoa, grinning face or bugbear for frightening children and was given to the nut because the three scars at the broad end of the nut resemble a grotesque face. End of footnote. To make confusion worse confounded the old writers referred to cacao seeds as cacao nuts. Footnote as for example in the humble memorial of Joseph Fry quoted in the chapter on history. End of footnote. But as in appearance cacao seeds resemble beans. They are now usually spoken of as beans. The distinction between cacao and the coconut may be summarized thus, botanical name of cacao, the abroma cacao tree, botanical name of coconut, cocos nusifera pom pom, the fruit of cacao, cacao pod containing many seeds, cacao beans, the fruit of a coconut, coconut which with outer fiber is as large as a man's head, products of cacao, cocoa, chocolate, products of coconut, broken coconut, cobra, coconut matting, fatty constituent of cacao, cacao butter, fatty constituent of coconut, coconut oil. End of introduction. Chapter one, cocoa and chocolate, a sketch of their history, quote, did time and space allow. There is much to be told on the romantic side of chocolate, of its divine origin, of the bloody wars and brave exploits of the Spaniards who conquered Mexico and were the first to introduce cacao into Europe, tales almost too thrilling to be believed, of the intrigues of the Spanish court, and of celebrities who met and sipped their chocolate in the parlors of the coffee and chocolate houses, so fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries. Quoted from, cocoa and chocolate, wiper. On opening a cacao pod, it is seen to be full of beans surrounded by a fruity pulp, and whilst the pulp is very pleasant to taste, the beans themselves are uninviting, so that doubtless the beans were always thrown away until someone tried roasting them. One pictures this someone as a prehistoric Aztec, with squirt skin sniffing the aromatic fume coming from the roasting beans, and thinking that beans which smelled so appetizing must be good to consume. The name of the man who discovered this use of cacao must be written in some early chapter of the history of man, but it is blurred and unreadable. All we know is that he was an inhabitant of the New World and probably of Central America. Original home of cacao. The corner of the earth where the cacao tree originally grew and still grows wild today is the country watered by the mighty Amazon and the Aranoco. This is the very region in which Oriano, the Spanish adventurer, said that he had truly seen El Dorado, which he describes as a city of gold, roofed with gold, and standing by a lake with golden sands. In reality, El Dorado was nothing but a vision. A vision that for a hundred years fascinated all manner of dreamers and adventurers from Sir Walter Raleigh downwards, so that many braved great hardships in search of it, groped through forests where the cacao tree grew, and returned to Europe, feeling they had failed. To our eyes, they were not entirely unsuccessful, for whilst they failed to find a city of gold, they discovered the home of the golden pod. Montezuma, the first great patron of chocolate. When Columbus discovered the new world, he brought back with him to Europe many new and curious things, one of which was cacao. Some years later, in 1519, the Spanish conquistador Cortez landed in Mexico, marched into the interior and discovered, to his surprise, not the huts of savages, but a beautiful city with palaces and museums. This city was the capital of the Aztecs, a remarkable people, notable alike for their ancient civilization and their wealth. Their national drink was chocolate. In Montezuma, their emperor, who lived in a state of luxurious magnificence, quote, took no other beverage than the chocolatul, a potation of chocolate flavored with vanilla and other spices, and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which gradually dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold. This beverage, if it so could be called, was served in golden goblets, with spoons of the same metal or tortoise shell finally wrought. The emperor was exceedingly fond of it, to judge from the quantity no less than fifty jars or pitchers being prepared for his own daily consumption. Two thousand more were allowed for that of his household. It is curious that Montezuma took no other beverage than chocolate, especially if it be true that the Aztecs also invented that fascinating drink, the cocktail. How long this ancient people, students of the mysteries of culinary science, had known the art of preparing a drink from cacao is not known, but it is evident that the cultivation of cacao received great attention in these parts. For if we read down the list of tributes paid by different cities to the lords of Mexico, we find twenty chests of ground chocolate, twenty bags of gold dust, again, eighty loads of red chocolate, twenty lip jewels of clear amber, and yet again, two hundred loads of chocolate. Another people that share with the Aztecs the honor of being the first great cultivators of cacao are the Incas of Peru, that wonderful nation that knew not poverty. The fascination of chocolate. That chocolate charmed the ladies of Mexico in the seventeenth century, even as it charms the ladies of England today, is shown by a story which Gage relates in his new survey of the West Indias, sixteen forty eight. He tells us that at Chiapa, southward from Mexico, the women used to interrupt both sermon and mass by having their maids bring them a cup of hot chocolate. And when the bishop, after fair warning, excommunicated them for this presumption, they changed their church. The bishop, he adds, was poisoned for his pains. Cacao beans as money. Cacao was used by the Aztecs, not only for the preparation of a beverage, but also as a circulating medium of exchange. For example, one could purchase a tolerably good slave for one hundred beans. We read that, their currency consisted of transparent quills of gold dust and bits of tin cut in the form of a tea, and of bags of cacao containing a specified number of grains. Blessed money, exclaims Peter Martyr, which exempts its possessor from avarice, since it cannot be long hoarded nor hidden underground. Derivation of chocolate. The word was derived from the Mexican Chocolato. The Mexicans used to froth their Chocolato with curious whisks made specially for the purpose. Thomas Gage suggested that choco, choco, choco is a vocal representation of the sound made by stirring chocolate. The suffix atul means water. According to Mr. W. J. Gordon, we owe the name of chocolate to a misprint. He states that Joseph Acosta, who wrote as early as 1604 of Chocolato, was made by the printer to write Chocolate from which the English eliminate the accent, and the French the final letter. First Cacao in Europe. The Spanish discoverers of the New World brought home to Spain quantities of Cacao, which the curious tasted. We may conclude that they drank the preparation cold, as Montezuma did, hot chocolate being a later invention. The new drink, eagerly sought by some, did not meet with universal approval. And as was natural, the most diverse opinions existed as to the pleasantness and wholesomeness of the beverage when it was first known. Thus, Joseph Acosta, 1604, wrote, quote, the chief use of this cocoa is in a drink which they call Chacholate, whereof they make great account, bullishly and without reason, for it is loathsome to such, as are not acquainted with it, having a cream or froth that is very unpleasant to taste, if they be not well conceited thereof. Yet, it is a drink very much esteemed among the Indians, whereof they feast noble men as they pass through their country. The Spaniards, both men and women, that are accustomed to the country, are very greedy of this Chacholate, end quote. It is not impossible that the English, with the defeat of the armada fresh in memory, were at first contemptuous of this Spanish drink. Certain it is that when British sea rovers, like Drake and Frobisher, captured Spanish galleons on the high sea, and on searching their holds for treasure, found bags of cacao, they flung them overboard in scorn. In considering this scorn of cacao, shown alike by British buccaneers and Dutch corsairs, together with the critical air of Joseph Acosta, we should remember that the original Chacholate of the Mexicans consisted of a mixture of maize and cacao, with hot spices like chilies, and contained no sugar. In this condition, few inhabitants of the temperate zone could relish it. It, however, only needed one thing, the addition of sugar, and the introduction of this marked the beginning of its European popularity. The Spaniards were the first to manufacture and drink chocolate in any quantity. To this day, they serve it in the old style, thick as porridge and pungent with spices. They endeavored to keep secret the method of preparation, and without success, to retain the manufacture as a monopoly. Chocolate was introduced into Italy by Carletti, who praised it and spread the method of its manufacture abroad. The new drink was introduced by mox from Spain into Germany and France, and, when in 1660 Maria Teresa, Infanta of Spain, married Louis XIV, she made chocolate well known at the court of France. She it was of whom a French historian wrote that Maria Teresa had only two passions, the king and chocolate. France was advocated by the learned physicians of those times as a cure for many diseases, and it was stated that cardinal Richelieu had been cured of general atrophy by its use. From France, the use of chocolate spread into England, where it began to be drunk as a luxury by the aristocracy, about the time of the Commonwealth. It must have made some progress in public favor by 1673, for in that year, a lover of his country wrote in the Harlein Miscellany demanding its prohibition, along with brandy, rum and tea, on the ground that this imported article did no good and hindered the consumption of English-grown barley and wheat. New things appealed to the imaginative, and the absence of authentic knowledge concerning them allows free play to the imagination. So it happened that in the early days, whilst many writers vied with one another in writing glowing penedrics on cacao, a few thought it an evil thing. Thus, whilst it was praised by many for its wonderful faculty of quenching thirst, allaying hectic heats of nourishing and fattening the body, it was seriously condemned by others as an inflamer of the passions. Chocolate houses and clubs. The drinking here of chocolate can make a fool a Sophie. In the spacious days of Queen Elizabeth, tea, coffee and chocolate were unknown, safe to travelers and savants and the handmaidens of the good queen drank beer with their breakfast. When Shakespeare and Ben Johnson foregathered at the Mermaid Tavern, their winged words passed over tankards of ale, but later other drinks became the usual accompaniment of news, story and discussion. In the 1660s, there were no strident newspapers to destroy one's equanimity and the gossip of the day began to be circulated and discussed over cups of tea, coffee or chocolate. The humorists ever stirred by novelty tilted, pen in hand, at these new drinks. Thus, one rhyme stirred describe coffee as, quote, syrup of soot or essence of old shoes, end quote. The first coffee house in London was started in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, in 1652, when coffee was seven shillings a pound. The first tea house was opened in exchange alley in 1657, when tea was five sovereigns a pound. And in the same year, with chocolate, about ten to fifteen shillings per pound, a Frenchman opened the first chocolate house in Queen's Head Alley, Bishop's Gate Street. The rising popularity of chocolate led to the starting of more of these chocolate houses at which one could sit and sip chocolate or purchase the commodity for preparation at home. Peep's entry in his diary for 24th November 1664 contains, quote, to a coffee house to drink jocolate very good, end quote. It is an artless entry, and yet one can almost hear him smacking his lips. Silverman says that, quote, after the restoration there were shops in London for the sale of chocolate at ten shillings or fifteen shillings per pound. Ozynda's chocolate house was full of aristocratic consumers, comedies, satirical essays, memoirs, and private letters of that age frequently mention it. The habit of using chocolate was deemed a token of elegant and fashionable taste, and while the charms of this beverage in the reins of Queen Anne and George I were so highly esteemed by couriers, by lords and ladies and fine gentlemen in the polite world, the learned physicians extolled its medicinal virtues, end quote. From the coffee house and its more aristocratic relative, the chocolate house, there developed a new feature in English social life, the club. As the years passed, the chocolate house remained a rendezvous, but the character of its habituaries changed from time to time, thus one famous in the days of Queen Anne and well known by its sign of the cocoa tree was at first the headquarters of the Jacobite party and the resort of Tories of the strictest school. It became later a noted gambling house, and ultimately developed into a literary club including amongst its members Gibbon, the historian, and Byron, the poet. Tax on Cacaio. The growing consumption of chocolate did not escape the all-seeing eye of the chancellors of England, as early as 1660 we find amongst various custom and excise duties granted to Charles II, quote, for every gallon of chocolate sherbet and tea made and sold to be paid by the maker thereof, eight D, end quote. Later the raw material was also made a source of revenue. In the humble memorial of Joseph Fry, of Bristol, maker of chocolate, which was addressed to the Lord's commissioners of the treasury in 1776, we read that, quote, chocolate pays two shillings and three pints per pound excise, besides about ten shillings per hundred weight on the cocoa nuts from which it is made, end quote. In 1784 a preferential customs rate was proposed in favour of our colonies. This they enjoyed for many years before 1853 when the uniform rate, until recently in force, was introduced. This restrictive tariff on foreign growths rose in 1803 to five S, ten D per pound against one S, ten D on Cacaio grown in British possessions. From this date it gradually diminished. High duties hampered for many years the sale of cocoa, tea and coffee, but in recent times these duties have been brought down to more reasonable figures. For many years before 1915 the import duty was one D per pound on the raw Cacaio beans, one D per pound on Cacaio butter, and two S, a hundred weight, less than a farthing a pound on Cacaio shells or husks. In the budget of September 1915 the above duties were increased by fifty percent. A further and greater increase was made in the budget of April 1916 when Cacaio was made to pay a higher tax in Britain than any other country in the world. In 1919 imperial preference was introduced after a break of over sixty years the duty on cocoa from foreign countries being three fourths D a pound more than that from British possessions. Duty on Cacaio, 1855 to 1915, Cacaio beans per pound, one D, Cacaio butter per pound, one D, Cacaio shells per hundred weight, two S. In 1915, Cacaio beans per pound, one and a half D, Cacaio butter per pound, one and a half D, Cacaio shells per hundred weight, three S. In 1916, Cacaio beans per pound, six D, Cacaio butter per pound, six D, Cacaio shells per hundred weight, twelve S. In 1919, Cacaio beans per pound, four and a half D, four N, three and three-quarter D, British, Cacaio butter per pound, four and a half D, four N, three and three-quarters D, British, Cacaio shells per hundred weight, six S. Four N, five S. British. In considering this duty and its effect on the price of the finished article it should be remembered that there are substantial losses in manufacture. Thus, the beans are cleaned, which removes up to .5 percent, roasted, which causes a lost by volatilization of 7 percent, and shelled the husks being about 12 percent. Therefore, the actual yield of usable nib, which has to bear the whole duty, is about 80 percent. It may be well to add that the yield of cocoa powder is 48 percent. Of the raw beans, or roughly one pound of the raw product, yields half a pound of the finished article. Introduction of cocoa powder. The drink, cocoa, as we know it today, was not introduced until 1828. Before this time, the ground bean, mixed with sugar, was sold in cakes. The beverage prepared from these chocolate cakes was very rich in butter, and whilst the British Navy has always consumed it in this condition, the sailors generally removed with a spoon the excess of butter which floats to the top, it is a little heavy for less hearty digestions. Van Hooten, of the well-known Dutch house of that name, in 1828 invented a method of pressing out part of the butter, and thus obtained a lighter, more appetizing, and more easily assimilated preparation. As the butter is useful in chocolate manufacture, this process enabled the manufacturer to produce a less costly cocoa powder, and thus the circle of consumers was widened. Montseur's Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham first sold their cocoa essence in 1866, and Montseur's Fry and Sons of Bristol introduced a pure cocoa by pressing out part of the butter in 1868. Growing Popularity of Cacao Preparations. The incidents of import duties did not prevent the continuous increase in the amount of cacao consumed in the British Isles. When Queen Victoria came to the throne, the cacao cleared for home consumption was about four or five thousand tons, more than half of which was consumed by the navy. At the time of Queen Victoria's death, it had increased to four times this amount, and by 1915 it had reached nearly fifty thousand tons. And of Chapter One. Chapter Two of Cocoa and Chocolate. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, this reading by Alison Hester of Athens, Georgia. Cocoa and Chocolate, their history from Plantation to Consumer by Arthur W. Knapp. Chapter Two. Cacao and its Cultivation. How seldom do we think, when we drink a cup of cocoa or eat some morsels of chocolate, that our liking for these delicacies has set minds and bodies at work all the world over. Many types of humanity have contributed to their production. Picture in the mind's eye, the graceful cooly in the sun-saturated tropics, moving in the shade, cutting the pods from the cacao tree, the deep-chested sailor, helping to unload from lighters or surf boats the precious bags of cacao into the hold of the ocean liner. The skilful workmen roasting the beans until they feel the room with a fine aroma, and the girl with dexterous fingers packing the cocoa or fashioning the chocolate in curious and delicate forms. To the black and brown races, the Negroes and the East Indians, we owe a debt for their work on tropical plantations, for the harder manual work would be too arduous for Europeans unused to the heat of those regions. Cacao can only grow at tropical temperatures, when shielded from the wind and unimpaired by drought. Enthusiasts, as a hobby, have grown the tree under glass in England. It requires a warmer temperature than either tea or coffee, and only after infinite care can one succeed in getting the tree to flower in bare fruit. The mean temperature in the countries in which it thrives is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, and the average of the maximum temperatures is seldom more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or the average of the minimum temperatures less than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The rainfall can be as low as 45 inches per annum, as in the Gold Coast, or as high as 150 inches, as in Java. Provided the fall is uniformly distributed. The ideal spot in the secluded vale, and Wildston, Venezuela, there are plantations up to 2,000 feet above sea level, Cacao cannot generally be profitably cultivated above 1,000 feet. Factors of Geographical Distribution Climate, soil, and manures determine the possible region of cultivation. The extent to which the area is utilized depends on the enterprise of man. The original home of Cacao was the rich tropical region, far famed in Elizabethan days, that lies between the Amazon and the Orinoco, and, but for the enterprise of man, it is doubtful if it would have ever spread from this region. These often carry the beans many miles. Man, the master monkey, has carried them round the world. First, the Indians spread Cacao over the tropical belt of the American continent, and cultivated it as far north as Mexico. Then came the Spanish explorers of the New World, who carried it from the mainland to the adjacent West Indian islands. Cacao was planted by them in Trinidad, as early as 1525. Since that date, it has been successfully introduced into many a tropical island. It was an important day in the history of Ceylon when Sir R. Horton in 1834 had Cacao plants brought to that island from Trinidad. The carefully packed plants survived the ordeal of a voyage of 10,000 miles. The most recent introduction is, however, the most striking. About 1880, a native of the Gold Coast, obtained some beans, probably from Fernando Po. In 1891, the first bag of Cacao was exported. It weighed 80 pounds. In 1915, 24 years later, the export from the Gold Coast was 120 million pounds. Tropical vegetation appears so bizarre to the visitor from temperate climates that in such surroundings the Cacao tree seems almost commonplace. It is in appearance as moderate and unpretentious as an apple tree, though somewhat taller, being, when full grown, about 20 feet high. It begins to bear in its fourth or fifth year. Smooth in its early youth, as it gets older, it becomes covered with little bosses, cushions, from which many flowers spring. I saw one fellow, very tall and gnarled, and with many pods on it. Turning to the planter, I inquired, how old is that tree? He replied almost reverentially, it's a good deal older than I am, must be at least 50 years old. That's one of the tallest Cacao trees I've ever seen. I wonder, the planter perceived my thought and said, I'll have it measured for you. It was 40 feet high. That was a tall one, usually they are not more than half that height. The bark is reddish gray, and may be partly hidden by brown, gray and green patches of lichen. The bark is both beautiful and quaint, but in the main, the tree owes its beauty to its luxuriance of prosperous leaves and its quaintness to its pods. The flowers, leaves and fruit. Although Cacao trees are not unlike the fruit trees of England, there are differences which, when first one sees them, cause expressions of surprise and pleasure to leap to the lips. One sees what one never saw before, the fruit springing from the main trunk, quite close to the ground. An old writer has explained that this is due to a wise providence, because the pod is so heavy that if it hung from the end of the branches, it would fall off before it reached maturity. The old writer talks of providence. A modern writer would see in the same facts a simple example of evolution. On the same Cacao tree every day of the year may be found flowers, young podkins and mature pods side by side. I say found advisedly. At the first glance, one does not see the flowers because they are so dainty and so small. The buds are the size of rice grains and the flowers are not more than half an inch across when the petals are fully out. The flowers are pink or yellow of wax-like appearance and have no odor. They were commonly stated to be pollinated by thrips and other insects. Dr. Vaughn Faber of Java has recently shown that whilst self-pollination is the rule, cross-fertilization occurs between the flowers on adjacent or interlocking trees. These graceful flowers are so small that one can walk through a plantation without observing them, although an average tree will produce 6,000 blossoms in a year. Not more than one percent of these will become fruit. Usually it takes six months for the bud to develop into the mature fruit. The lovely mosses that grow on the stems and branches are sometimes so thick that they have to be destroyed or the fragile Cacao flower could not push its way through. Whilst the flowers are small, the leaves are large, being, as an average, about a foot in length and four inches in breadth. The Cacao tree never appears naked, save on the rare occasions when it is stripped by the wind and the leaves are green all year round, save when they are red if the reader will pardon and have burnicism. And indeed there is something contrary in the crimson tint, for whilst we usually associate this with old leaves about to fall, with the Cacao, as with some rose trees, it is the tint of young leaves. The fruit which hangs on a short, thick stalk may be anything in shape, from a melon to a stumpy, irregular cucumber, according to the botanic variety. The intermediate shape is like a lemon with furrows from end to end. There are pods called calabacillo, smooth and ovate, like a calabash. And there are others more rare, so knobbly, that they are well named alligator. The pods vary in length from five to eleven inches, with here and there the great pod of all, the blood red Sangret Torah. The colors of the pods are as brilliant as they are various. They are rich and strong, and resemble those of the rind of the pomegranate. One pod shows many shades of dull crimson. Another grades from gold to yellow of leather, and yet another is all lackluster pea green. They may be likened to Chinese lanterns hanging in the woods. One does not conclude from the appearance of the pod that the contents are edible any more than one would surmise that tea leaves could be used to produce a refreshing drink. I say as much to the planter who smiles. With one deft cut, with his machete or cutlass, which hangs in a leather scabbard by his side, the planter severs the pod from the tree, and with another slash cuts the thick, almost woody rind and breaks open the pod. Here is disclosed a mass of some 30 or 40 beans covered with juicy pulp. The inside of the rind and the mass of the beans are gleaming white, like melting snow. Sometimes the mass is pale amethyst in color. I perceive a pleasant odor resembling melon. Like little Jack Horner, I put my thumb in and pull out a snow white bean. It is slippery to hold, so I put it in my mouth. The taste is sweet, something between grape and melon. Inside this fruity coating is the bean proper. From different pods we take beans and cut them in two and find that the color of the bean varies from purple to almost white. Botanical Description The obroma cacao belongs to the family of Sturculiaceae into the same order as limes and mellows. It is described in Strasburgers admirable textbook of botany as follows. Family Sturculiaceae Important genera The most important plant is the coco tree, the obroma cacao. It is a low tree with short, stalt, firm, brittle, simple leaves of large size, oval shape and dark green color. The young leaves are of a bright red color and, as in many tropical trees, hang limply downwards. The flowers are born on the main stem, or the older branches, and arise from dormant auxiliary buds. Each petal is bulged up at the base, narrows considerably above this, and ends in an expanded tip. The form of the reddish flowers is thus somewhat urn shaped with five radiating point. The pentalecular ovary has numerous ovules in each yoculus. As the fruit develops, the soft tissue of the septa extends between the single seeds. The ripe fruit is thus unilocular and many seeded. The seed coat is filled by the embryo, which has two large, folded, brittle cotuldians. The last sentence conveys an erroneous impression. The two cotuldians, which form the seeds, are not brittle when found in nature in the pod. They are juicy and fleshy, and it is only after the seed has received special treatment, fermentation and drying, to obtain the bean of commerce that it becomes brittle. Varieties of Theobroma Cacaio As mentioned above, the pods and seeds of Theobroma Cacaio trees show a marked variation, and in every country, the botanist has studied these variations and classified the trees according to the shape and color of the pods and seeds. The existence of so many classifications has led to a good deal of confusion, and we are indebted to Van Hall for the simplest way of clearing up these difficulties. He accepts the classification, first given by Morris, dividing the trees into two varieties, Criolo and Forastero. The Cacaio of the Criolo variety has pods, the walls of which are thin and warty, with ten distinct furrows. The seeds or beans are white as ivory throughout, round and plump and sweet to taste. The Forastero variety includes many sub-varieties, the kind most distinct from the Criolo having pods, the walls of which are thick and woody, the surface smooth, and the furrows indistinct, and the shape globular. The seeds in these pods are purple in color, flat in appearance, and bitter to taste. This is a very convenient classification. Personally, I believe it would be possible to find pods varying by almost imperceptible gradations from the finest, purest Criolo to the lowest form of Forastero. The Criolo yields the finest and rarest kind of Cacaio, but as sometimes happens with refined types in nature, it is a rather delicate tree, especially liable to canker and bark diseases, and this accounts for the predominance of the Forastero in the Cacaio plantations of the world. The Cacaio Plantation. One can spend happy days on a Cacaio estate. Are you going into the cocoa? They ask. Just as in England we might inquire, are you going into the corn? Coconut plantations in sugar estates make a strong appeal to the imagination, but for peaceful beauty they cannot compare with the Cacaio Plantation. True, coconut plantations are very lovely. The palms are so graceful, the leaves against the sky so like a fine etching, but the slender cocoa's drooping crown of plumes is altogether foreign to English eyes. Sugar estates are generally marred by the prosaic factory in the background. They are dead level plains, and the giant grass affords no shade from the relentless sun, whereas the leaves of the Cacaio tree are large and numerous so that even in the heat of the day it is comparatively cool and pleasant under the Cacaio. Coconut plantations present in different countries every variety of appearance, from that of a wild forest in which the greater portion of the trees or Cacaio to the tidy and orderly plantation. In some of the Trinidad plantations the trees are planted in parallel lines 12 feet apart, with a tree every 12 feet along the line, and as you push your way through the plantation the apparently irregularly scattered trees are seen to flash momentarily into long lines. In other parts of the world, for example in Granada and Suriname, the ground may be kept so tidy and free from weeds that they have the appearance of gardens. Clearing the land. When the planter has chosen a suitable site and exercise requiring skill, the forest has to be cleared. The felling of great trees and the clearing of the wild tangle of undergrowth is arduous work. It is well to leave the trees on the ridges for about 60 feet on either side and thus form a belt of trees to act as windscreen. Cacaio trees are as sensitive to a draft as some human beings and these windbreaks are often deliberately grown, Balata, Mango, Trinidad, Galaba, Granada, Wild Poidu, Martinique, and other leafy trees being suitable for this purpose. Suitable soil. It was for many years believed that if a tree were analyzed the best soil for its growth could at once be inferred and described as it was assumed that the best soil would be one containing the same elements and similar proportions. This simple theory ignored the characteristic powers of assimilation of the tree in question and the digestibility of the soil constituents. However, it is agreed that soils rich in potash and lime, e.g. those obtained by the decomposition of certain volcanic rocks, are good for Cacaio. An open sandy or loamy alluvial soil is considered ideal. The physical condition of the soil is equally important. Heavy clays or waterlogged soils are bad. The depth of soil required depends on its nature. A stiff soil discourages the growth of the taproot, which in good porous soils is generally 7 or 8 feet long. The greater part of the world's Cacaio is produced without the use of artificial manures. The soil, which is continually washed down by the rains into the rivers, is continually renewed by the decomposition of the bedrock. And in the tropics, this decomposition is more rapid than in temperate climes. In Guayaquil, notwithstanding the fact that the same soil has been cropped consecutively for over a hundred years, there is as yet no sign of decadence, nor does a necessity yet arise for artificial manure. However, manures are useful with all soils and necessary with many. Happy is the planter who is so placed that he can obtain a plentiful supply of farm yard or pen manure, as this gives excellent results. Mulching is also recommended. This consists of covering the ground with decaying leaves, grasses, etc., which keeps the soil in a moist and open condition during the dry season. If artificial manures are used, they should vary according to the soil, and although he can obtain considerable help from the analyst, the planter's most reliable guide will be experiment on the spot. Planting In the past, insufficient care has been taken in the selection of seed. The planter should choose the large, plump beans with a pale interior, or he should choose the nearest kind to this that is sufficiently hardy to thrive in the particular environment. He can plant, one, direct from seeds, or two from seedlings, plants raised in nurseries in bamboo pots, or three by grafting or budding. It is usual to plant two or three seeds in each hole and destroy the weaker plants when about a foot high. The seeds are planted from twelve to fifteen feet apart. The distance chosen depends chiefly on the richness of the soil. The richer the soil, the more ample room is allowed for the trees to spread without choking each other. Interesting results have been obtained by heart and others by grafting the fine but tender Criollo onto the hardy Forestera, but until yesterday the practice had not been tried on a large scale. Experiments were begun in 1913 by Mr. W. G. Freedman in Trinidad, which promised interesting results. By 1919, the Department of Agriculture had seven acres in grafted and budded Kakao. In a few years it should be possible to say whether it pays to form an estate of budded Kakao in preference to using seedlings. There are no longer any mystic rites performed before planting. In the old days, it was the custom to solemnize the planting, for example by sacrificing a Kakao colored dog, shade, temporary, and permanent. When the seeds are planted, such small plants as cassava, chilies, pigeon peas, and the like are planted with them. The object of planting these is to afford the young Kakao plant, shelter from the sun, and to keep the ground in good condition. Incidentally, the planter obtains cassava, which gives tapioca, red peppers, etc. as a catch crop, whilst he is waiting for the Kakao tree to begin to yield. Bananas and plantains are planted with the same object, and these are allowed to remain for a longer period. Such is the rapidity of plant growth in the tropics that in three or four years the Kakao tree is taller than a man, and begins to bear fruit in its fourth or fifth year. Now it is agreed that, as with men, the Kakao tree needs protection in its youth, but whether it needs shade trees when it is fully grown is one of the controversial questions. When the planter is sitting after his day's work is done, and no fresh topic comes to his mind, he often reopens the discussion on the question of shade. The idea that Kakao trees need shade is a very ancient one as shown in a very old drawing, possibly the oldest drawing of Kakao extant, beneath which is written, quote, of the tree which bears Kakao, which is money, and how the Indians obtained fire with two pieces of wood, end quote. In this drawing you will observe how lovingly the shade tree shelters the Kakao. The intention in using shade is to imitate the natural forest conditions in which the wild Kakao grow. Sometimes when clearing the forest, certain large trees are left standing, but more frequently and with better judgment, chosen kinds are planted. Shade trees have been used, the salmon, breadfruit, mango, mammoth, sandbox, poidu, rubber, etc. In the illustration showing Kipok acting as a parasol for Kakao and Java, we see that the proportion of shade trees to Kakao is high. Liduminous trees are preferred because they conserve the nitrogen in the soil, hence In Trinidad, the favorite shade tree is Erythrina or Boy Immortelle, so-called, a humorous suggests because it is short-lived. It is also rather prettily named Mother of Kakao. Usually, the shade trees are planted about 40 feet apart, but there are Kakao plantations which might cause a stranger to inquire, is this an Immortelle plantation? So closely are these conspicuous trees planted. When looking down a Trinidad valley, richly planted with Kakao, one sees in every direction the silver-gray trunks of the Immortelle. In the early months of the year, these trees have no leaves. They are a mass of flame-colored flowers, each shafted like a cemeter. It pays well the labor of climbing a hill to look down on this vermilion glory. Some Trinidad planters believe that their trees would die without shade, yet in Granada, only a hundred miles north as the steamer sails, there are whole plantations without a single shade tree. The Granadians say, you cannot have pods without flowers, and you cannot have good flowering without light and air. Shade trees are not used on some estates in Santomé, and in Brazil there are cocoa kings with 200,000 trees without one shade tree. It should be mentioned, however, that in these countries, the Kakao trees are planted more closely, about eight feet apart, and themselves shade the soil. Professor Carmody, in reporting recently on the result of a four-year experiment with one shade, two no shade, three partial shade, says that so far partial shade has given the best results. No general solution has yet been found to the question of the advantage of shade, and as Shaw states for morality, so in agriculture, the golden rule is that there is no golden rule. Not only is there the personal factor, but nature provides an infinite variety of environments, and the best results are obtained by the use of methods appropriate to the local conditions. Form of tree growth desired, suckers. This count, Mount Mores, in a delightfully clear exposition of Kakao cultivation, which he gave to the native farmers and cheats of the Gold Coast in 1906, said, In pruning, it is necessary always to bear in mind that the best shape for Kakao trees is that of an enlarged open umbrella, with a height under the umbrella not exceeding seven feet. With this ideal in mind, the planters should train up the tree in the way it should go. This count, Mount Mores, also said that everything that grows upwards, except the main stem, must be cut off. This opens a question which is of great interest to planters, as to whether it is wise to allow shoots to grow out from the main trunk near the ground. Some hold that the high yield on their plantation is due to letting these upright shoots grow. My amigo Corsicano said, Diabolo, let the Kakao trees grow. Let them branch off like any other fruit tree, say the tamarind. The chupon, or sucker, will in time bear more than its mother. There seems to be some evidence that old trees profit from the chupons, because they continue to bear when the old trunk is weary. But this is compensated by the fact that the chupons, Portuguese for suckers, were grown at the expense of the tree and its youth. Hence, other planters call them thieves and gormandizers, saying that they suck the sap from the tree, turning all to wood. They follow the advice given as early as 1730 by the author of the natural history of chocolate when he says, cut or lop off the suckers. In Trinidad, experiments have been started, and after a five years test, Professor Carmody says that the indications are that it is a matter of indifference whether chupons are allowed to grow or not. After hunting, agriculture is man's oldest industry, and improvements come but slowly. For the proving of a theory often requires work on a huge scale carried out for several decades. The husbandry of the earth goes on from century to century with little change, and the methods followed are the winnowings of experience, tempered with indolence. And even with the bewildering progress of science in other directions, sound improvements in this field are rare discoveries. There is a great scope for the application of physical and chemical knowledge to the production of the raw materials of the tropics. In one or two instances, notable advances have been made. Thus, the direct production of white sugar, as now practiced at Java, at the tropical factory, will have far-reaching effects. But with many tropical products, the methods practiced are as ancient as they are haphazard. Like all methods founded on long experience, they suit the environment and the temperament of the people who use them, so that the work of the scientist in introducing improvements requires intimate knowledge of the conditions if his suggestions are to be adopted. The various departments of agriculture are doing splendid pioneer work, but the full harvest of their sowing tree will not be reaped until the number of tropically educated agriculturalists has been increased by the founding of three or four agricultural colleges and research laboratories in equatorial regions. There is much research to be done, as yet, however, many planters are ignorant of all that is already established, the facilities for education in tropical agriculture being few and far between. There are signs, however, of development in this direction. It is pleasant to note that a start was made in Ceylon at the end of 1917 by opening an agricultural school at Peridineja. Trinidad has for a number of years had an agricultural school and is eager to have a college devoted to agriculture. In 1919, Montseur's Cadbury Brothers gave 5,000 pounds to form the nucleus of a special educational fund for the Gold Coast. The scientists attached to the several government agricultural departments in Java, Ceylon, Trinidad, the Philippines, Africa, etc., have done splendid work, but it is desirable that the number of workers should be increased. When the world wakes up to the importance of tropical produce, agricultural colleges will be scattered about the tropics so that every would-be planter can learn his subject on the spot. Diseases of the Cacaio Tree Take for example the case of the diseases of plants. Everyone who takes an interest in the garden knows how destructive the insect pests and vegetable parasites can be. In the tropics, their power for destruction is very great and they are a constant menace to economic products like Cacaio. The importance of understanding their habits and of studying methods to keep them in check is readily appreciated. The planter may be ruined by lacking this knowledge. The Cacaio Tree has been improved and domesticated to satisfy human requirements, a process which has rendered it weaker to resist attacks from pests and parasites. It is usual to classify man amongst the pests, as either from ignorance or by careless handling he can do the tree much harm. Other animal pests are the wanton thieves, monkeys, squirrels, and rats who destroy more fruit than they consume. The insect pests include varieties of beetles, thrips, aphids, scale insects, and ants, wild fungi are the cause of the canker in the stem and the branches, and the witch broom disease in twigs and leaves and the black rot of pods. The subject is too immense to be summarized in a few lines and I recommend readers who wish to know more of this or other division of the science of Cacaio cultivation to consult one or more of the four classics in English on this subject. Cocoa by Herbert Wright, Ceylon 1907, Cacaio by Jay Hinchley Hart, Trinidad 1911, Cocoa by W. H. Johnson, Nigeria 1912, or Cocoa by C. J. J. Van Hall, Java in 1914. End of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 of Cocoa and Chocolate. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, this reading by Allison Hester of Athens, Georgia. Cocoa and Chocolate, Their History from Plantation to Consumer by Arthur W. Knapp. Chapter 3. Harvesting and Preparation for the Market. Gathering and heaping. In the last chapter I gave a brief account of the cultivation of Cacaio. I did not deal with forking, spraying, cutlassing, weeding, and so forth as it would lead us too far into purely technical discussions. I propose we assume that the planter has managed his estate well and that the plantation is before us looking very healthy and full of fruit waiting to be picked. The question arises, how shall we gather it? Shall we shake the tree? Cacaopods do not fall off the tree, even when overripe. Shall we knock off or pluck the pods? To do so would make a scar on the trunk of the tree and these wounds are dangerous in tropical climates as they are often attacked by canker. A sharp machete or cutlass is used to cut off the pods which grow on the lower part of the trunk. As the tree is not often strong enough to bury man, climbing is out of the question. And a knife on a pole is used for cutting off the pods on the upper branches. Various shaped knives are used by different planters. A common and efficient kind resembles a hand of steel with the thumb as a hook so that the pod stalk can be cut either by a push or pull. A good deal of ingenuity has been expended in devising a full proof picker which shall render easy the cutting of the pod stalk and yet not cut or damage the bark of the tree. A good example is the Agostini picker which was approved by Hart. The gathering of the fruits of one's labor is a pleasant task which occurs generally only at rare intervals. Cacao is gathered the whole year round. There is however in most districts one principal harvest period and a subsidiary harvest. With cacao in the tropics, as with corn in England, the gathering of the harvest is a delight to lovers of the beautiful. It is a great charm of the cacao plantation that the trees are so closely planted that nowhere does the sunlight find between the foliage a space larger than a man's hand. Near the universal glare outside it seems dark under the cacao, although the ground is bright with daffodled sunshine. You hear a noise of talking, of rustling leaves and falling pods. You come upon a band of coolies or negroes. One near you carries a long bamboo as long as a fishing rod with a knife at the end. With a lithe movement he inserts it between the vows and by giving it a sharp jerk nearly cuts the stalk of a pod which falls from the tree to the ground. Only the ripe pods must be picked. To do this not only must the pickers aim be true, but he must also have a good eye for color. Whether the pods be red or green, as soon as the color begins to be tinted with yellow it is ripe for picking. This change occurs first along the furrows in the pod. You or unripe pods would be gathered if only one kind of pod were grown on one plantation. The confusion of kinds and colors, which is often found, makes sound judgment very difficult. That the men generally judge correctly the ripeness of pods high in the trees is something to wonder at. The pickers pass on, strewing the earth with ripe pods. They are followed by the graceful dark skinned girls who gather one by one the fallen pods from the greenery until their baskets are full. Sometimes a basket full is too heavy and the girl cannot comfortably lift it onto her head, but when one of the men has helped her to place it there she carries it lightly enough. She trips through the trees, her bracelets jingling and tumbles the pods onto the heap. Once one has seen a great heap of cacao pods, it glows in one's memory. Anything more rich, more daring in the way of color one's eye is unlikely to light on. The artist, seeing only an aesthetic effect, would be content with this for the consummation and would wish the pods to remain unbroken. BREAKING AND EXTRACTING There are planters who believe that the product is improved by leaving the gathered pods several days before breaking, and they would follow the practice, but for the risk of losses by theft. Hence, the pods are generally broken on the same day as they are gathered. The primitive methods of breaking with a club or by banging on a hard surface are happily little used. Massen of New York made pod breaking machines, and Sir George Watt has recently invented an ingenious machine for squeezing the beans out of the pod. But at present, the extraction is done almost universally by hand, either by men or women. A knife, which would cut the husk of the pod, and was so constructed that it could not injure the beans within, would be a useful invention. The human extractor has the advantage that he or she can distinguish the diseased, unripe, or germinated beans and separate them from the good ones. Picture the men sitting round the heap of pods, and farther out, in a larger circle, twice as many girls with baskets. The man breaks the pod, and the girls extract the beans. The man takes the pod in his left hand, and gives it a sharp slash with a small cutlass, just cutting through the tough shell of the pod, but not into the beans inside, and then gives the blade, which he has embedded in the shell, a twisting jerk so that the pod breaks into with a crisp crack. The girls take the broken pods and scoop out the snow-like beans with a flat wooden spoon or a piece of rib bone, the beans being pulled off the stringy core, or placenta, which holds them together. The beans are put preferably into baskets, or failing these onto broad banana leaves, which are used as trays. Practice renders these processes cheerful and easy work, often performed to an accompaniment of laughing and chattering. Fermenting I allow myself the pleasure of thinking that I am causing some of my readers a little surprise when I tell them that cacao is fermented, and that the fermentation produces alcohol. As I mentioned above, the cacao bean is covered with a fruity pulp. The bean, as it comes from the pod, is moist, whilst the pulp is full of juice. It would be impossible to convey it to Europe in this condition. It would decompose, and when it reached its destination, would be worthless. In order that a product can be handled commercially, it is desired to have in it such a condition that it does not change, and thus, with cacao, it becomes necessary to get rid of the pulp, and, whilst this may be done by washing or simply by drying, experience has shown that the finest and driest product is obtained when the drying is preceded by fermentation. Just as broken grapes will ferment, so will the fruity pulp of the cacao bean. Present-day fermentaries are simply convenient places for storing the cacao, whilst the process goes on. In the process of fermentation, Dr. Chittenden says the beans are, quote, stewed in their own juice, end quote. 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 Suriname, it is conveyed by boat, and in Santome, by trucks, which run on decavell railways. The period of fermentation and the receptacle to hold the cacao vary from country to country. With cacao of the creolo 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 forestero 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 will find they are as hot and mulesilaginous as a poultice. 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 shoveled 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. In other places, for example, in Java, the boxes are arranged as a series of steps so that the cacao is transferred with little labor from higher to the lower. In Santomé, the cacao is placed on the plantation direct into trucks which are covered with plantain leaves and run on rails through the plantation, right into the fermentery. One day, some enterprising firm will build a fermentery in portable sections easily erected and with some simple mechanical mixer to replace the present laborious method of turning the beans by manual labor. The general conditions for a good fermentation are, 1. The mass of the beans must be kept warm, 2. The mass of the beans must be moist but not sodden, 3. In the later stages, there must be sufficient air, 4. The boxes must be kept clean. Changes During Fermentation No entirely satisfactory theory of the changes in cacao due to fermentation has yet been established. It is known that the sugary pulp outside the beans ferments in a similar way to the other fruit pulp save that for a yeast fermentation. The temperature rises unusually high in three days to 47 degrees Celsius and also that there are parallel and more important changes in the interior of the bean. The difficulty of establishing a complete theory of fermentation of cacao has not daunted the scientists for they know that the roses of philosophy are gathered by those who can grasp the thorniest problems. Success, however, is so far only partial as can be seen by consulting the best introduction on the subject, the admirable collection of essays on the fermentation of cacao, edited by H. H. M. L. Smith. Here the reader will find the valuable contributions of Ficcaday, Loew, Nichols, Pryor, Schultemhof and Sack. The obvious changes which occur in the breaking down of the fruity exterior of the bean should be carefully distinguished from the subtle changes in the bean itself. Let us consider them separately. A. Changes in the pulp. Just as grape pulp ferments and changes to wine, and just as weak wine, if left exposed, becomes sour, so the fruity sugary pulp outside the cacao bean on exposure gives off bubbles of carbon dioxide, becomes alcoholic and later becomes acid. The acid produced is generally the pleasant vinegar acid, but under some circumstances it may be lactic acid or the rancid smelling butyric acid, kismet. The planter trusts to nature to provide the right kind of fermentation. This fermentation is set up and carried on by the minute organisms, yeasts, bacteria, etc., which chance to fall on the beans from the air or come from the sides of the receptacle. One yeast cell does not make a fermentation and as no yeast is added, a day is wasted whilst any yeasts, which happen to be present, are multiplying to an army large enough to produce a visible effect on the pulp. Any organism, which happens to be on the pod, in the air, or on the inside of the fermentary, will multiply in the pulp if the pulp contains suitable nourishment. Each kind of organism produces its own characteristic changes. It would thus appear a miracle if the same substance were always produced, yet just as grape juice left exposed to every microorganism of the air generally changes in the direction of wine more or less good so that the pulp of cacao tends, broadly speaking, to ferment in one way. It would, however, be a serious error to assume that exactly the same kind of fermentation takes place in any two fermentaries in the world and the maximum variation must be considerable. As the pulp ferments, it is destroyed. It gradually changes from white to brown and a liquid, sweatings, flows away from it. The sweatings taste like sweet cider. At present this is allowed to run away through holes in the bottom of the box and no care is taken to preserve what may yet become a valuable byproduct. I found by experiment that in the preparation of one hundred count of dry beans about one and a half gallons of this unstable liquid are produced. In other words, some seven or eight million gallons of sweatings run to waste every year. In most cases, only small quantities are produced in one place at one time. This and the lack of knowledge of scientifically controlled fermentation and the difficulty of bottling prevent the starting of an industry producing either a new drink or a vinegar. The cacao juice or sweatings contains about 15% of solids, about half of which consists of sugars. If the fermentation of the cacao were centralized in the various districts and conducted on a large scale under a chemist's control, the sugars could be obtained or an alcoholic liquid or vinegar could easily be prepared. The planter decides when the beans are fermented by simply looking at them. He judges their condition by the color of the pulp. When they are ready to be removed from the fermentery, they are plump and brown without and juicy within. B. Changes in the interior of the bean. What is the relation between the comparatively simple fermentation of the pulp and the changes in the interior of the bean? This important question has not yet been answered, although a number of attempts have been made. As far as is known, the living ferments, microorganisms, do not penetrate the skin of the bean so that any fermentation which takes place must be promoted by unorganized ferments or enzymes. Mr. H. C. Brill found raffinase, invertees, caes, and protase in the pulp, oxidase, raffinase, and caesase and emulsin-like enzymes in the fresh bean, and all these six together with the deistase in the fermented bean. Dr. Fickenday says, The object of fermentation is, in the main, to kill the germ of the bean in such a manner that the efficiency of the unorganized ferment is in no way impaired. From my own observations, I believe that forestero beans are killed at 47 degrees Celsius, which is commonly reached when they have been fermenting 60 hours. For a remarkable change takes place at this temperature and time. Whilst the microorganisms remain outside, the juice of the pulp appears to penetrate not only the skin, but the flesh of the bean, and the brilliant violet in the isolated pigment cells, becomes diffused more or less evenly throughout the entire bean, including the germ. It is certain that the bean absorbs liquid from the outside, for it becomes so plump that its skin is stretched to the utmost. The following changes occur. 1. Taste An astringent, colorless substance, a tannin, or a body possessing many properties of a tannin, changes to a tasteless brown substance. The bean begins to taste less astringent as the tannin is destroyed. With white Criollo beans, this change is sufficiently advanced in two days. But with purple forestero beans, it may take seven days. 2. Color The change in the tannin results in the white Criollo beans becoming brown, and the purple forestero beans becoming tinged with brown. The action resembles the browning of a freshly cut apple and has been shown to be due to oxygen. Activated by an oxidase, a ferment encouraging combination with oxygen, acting on the astringent colorless substance, which, like the photographic developer, pyrogallic acid, becomes brown on oxidation. 3. Aroma A notable change is that substances are created within the bean, which, on roasting, produce the fine aromatic odor characteristic of cocoa and chocolate, and which Monsour's Bainbridge and Davey's have shown is due to a trace, 0.001%, of an essential oil over half of which consists of linaloal. 4. Stimulating It is commonly stated that during fermentation, there is generated theobromine, the alkaloid which gives cacao its stimulating properties, but the estimation of the theobromine in fermented and unfermented beans does not support this. 5. Consistency Fermented beans become crisp on drying. This development may be due to the tannins encountering in their dispersion through the bean proteins, which are thus converted into bodies, which are brittle solids on drying, compared tanning of hides. The hide of the bean may be similarly tanned, the shell certainly becomes leathery and less washed, but a far more probable explanation in both cases is that the gummy bodies in bean and shell set hard on drying. We see then that all the fermentation was probably originally followed as the best method of getting rid of the pulp. It has other effects which are entirely good. It enables the planter to produce a drier bean and one which has, when roasted, a finer flavor, color, and aroma than the unfermented. Fermentation is generally considered to produce so many desirable results that in parrots suggestion of removing the pulp by treatment with alkali and thus avoiding fermentation has not been enthusiastically received. Beans which have been dried direct and those which have been fermented may be distinguished as follows. Cacao beans dried direct shape of bean flat fermented and dried shape of bean plumper dried direct the shell is soft and close fitting fermented and dried the shell is crisp and more or less free dried direct the interior color is slight blue or mud brown fermented and dried the interior color bright browns and purples dried direct the interior consistent leather to cheese fermented and dried interior consistent crisp dried direct interior appearance solid fermented and dried interior appearance open grained dried direct interior taste more or less bitter or astringent fermented and dried interior taste less astringent while several effects of fermentation have not been satisfactorily accounted for I think all are agreed that to obtain one of the chief effects of fermentation namely the brown color oxidation is necessary all recognize that for this oxidation the presence of three substances is essential one the tannin to be oxidized two oxygen three an enzyme which encourages oxidation all these occur in the cacao bean as it comes from the pod but why oxidation occurs so much better in a fermented bean than in a bean which is simply dried is not very clear if you cut an apple it goes brown owing to the action of oxygen absorbed from the air but as long as the apple is uncut and unbrewed it remains white if you take a cacao bean from the pod and cut it the exposed surface goes brown but if you ferment the bean the whole of it gradually goes brown without being cut my observations lead me to believe that the bean does not become oxidized until it is killed that is until it is no longer capable of germination it can be killed by raising the temperature by fermentation or otherwise or as Dr. Fickenday has shown by cooling to almost freezing temperatures it may be that killing the bean makes its skin and cell walls more permeable to oxygen but my theory is that when the bean is killed this integration or weakening of the cell walls etc occurs and as a result the enzyme and tannin hitherto separate become mixed and hence able to actively absorb oxygen the action of oxygen on the tannin also accounts for the loss of astringency on fermentation and it may be well to point out that fermentation increases the internal surface of the bean exposed to air and oxygen the bean during fermentation actually sucks in liquid from the surrounding pulp and becomes plumper and fuller on drying however the skin which has been expanded to its utmost wrinkles up as the interior contracts and no longer fits tightly to the bean and the coddledons having been thrust apart by the liquid no longer hold together so closely this accounts for the open appearance of a fermented bean as on drying large interspaces are produced these allow the air to circulate more freely and expose a greater surface of the bean to the action of oxygen since the liquids in all living matter presumably contain some dissolved oxygen the problem is to account for the fact that the tannin in the unfurmented bean remains unoxidized whilst that in the fermented bean is easily oxidized the above affords a partial explanation and seems fairly satisfactory when taken with my previous suggestion namely that during fermentation the bean is rendered pervious to water which on distributing itself throughout the bean dissolves the isolated masses of tannin and diffuses it evenly so that it encounters and becomes mixed with the enzymes from this it will be evident that the major part of the oxidation of the tannin occurs during drying and hence the importance of this both from the point of view of the keeping properties of the kakayo and its color taste and aroma it will be realized from the above that there is still a vast amount of work to be done before the chemist will be in a position to obtain the more desirable aromas and flavors having found the necessary conditions scientifically trained overseers will be required to produce them and for this they will need to have under their direction arrangements for fermentation designed on correct principles and allowing some degree of control whilst improvements are always possible in the approach to perfection it must be admitted that considering the means at their disposal the planters produce a remarkably fine product loss on fermenting and drying the fermented kakayo is conveyed from the fermentary to the drying trays or floors the planter often has some rough check weighing system thus for example he notes the number of standard baskets of wet kakayo put into the fermentary and he measures the fermented kakayo produced with the help of a bottomless barrel by this means he finds that on fermentation the beans lose weight by the draining away of the sweatings according to the amount and juiciness of the pulp around them the beans are still very wet and on drying lose a high percentage of their moisture by evaporation before the kakayo bean of commerce is obtained the average losses may be tabulated thus weight of wet kakayo from pod 100 loss on fermentation 20 to 25 loss on drying 40 kakayo beans of commerce obtained 35 to 40 the drying of kakayo is an art on the one hand it is necessary to get the beans quite dry that is in a condition in which they hold only their normal amount of water five to seven percent or they will be liable to go moldy on the other hand the husk or shell of the bean must not be allowed to become burned or brittle brittle shells produce waste and packing and handling and broken shells allow grubs and mold to enter the beans when the kakayo is stored the method of drying varies in different countries according to the climate Jose says in the wet season when father soul chooses to lie low behind the clouds for days and your cocoa house is full your curing house full your trees loaded then is the time to put on his metal the energetic and practical planter in such tight corners amigo i have no only friend to set a fire under his cocoa house to keep the cocoa on the top somewhat warm another friend's plan and he recommended it was to address his patron saint on such occasions he never addressed that saint at other times end quote in most producing areas sun drying is preferred but in countries where much rain falls artificial dryers are slowly but surely coming into vogue these vary in pattern from simple heated rooms with shelves to vacuum stoves and revolving drums the sellers of these machines will agree with me when i say that every progressive planter ought to have one of these artificial aids to use during those depressing periods when the rain continually streams from the sky on fine days it is difficult to prevent mildew appearing on the kakao but at such times it is impossible however whenever available the sun's heat is preferable for it encourages a slow and even drying which lasts over a period of about three days most observers agree with dr sack that the valuable changes which occur during fermentation continue during drying especially those in which oxygen assists the full advantage of these is lost if the temperature used is high enough to kill the enzymes or if the drying is too rapid both of which may occur with artificial drying sun drying is done on cement or brick floors on koi mats or trays or on wooden platforms in order to dry the kakao uniformly it is raked over and over in the sun it must be tenderly treated carefully watched and caressed until the interior becomes quite crisp and in a color a beautiful brown sometimes the platforms are built on top of the fermentaries the kakao being conveyed through a hole in the roof of the fermentery to the drying platform in trinidad the platform always has a sliding roof which can be pulled over the kakao in the blaze of noon or when a rainstorm comes on in other places sliding platforms are used which can be pushed under cover in wet weather the washing of kakao in java silan and madagascar before the kakao is dried it is first washed to remove all traces of pulp this removal of pulp enables the beans to be more rapidly dried and is considered almost a necessity in silan where sun drying is difficult the practice appears at first sight holy good and sanitary but although beans so treated have a very clean and bright appearance looking not unlike almonds the practice cannot be recommended there is a loss of from two to ten percent and weight which is a disadvantage to the planter whilst the manufacturer's point of view washing is objectionable because according to dr. paul pruce the aroma suffers whilst this may be questioned there is no doubt that washing renders the shells more brittle and frayable and less able to bear carriage and handling and when the shell is broken the kakao is more liable to attack by grubs and mold therein lies the chief danger of washing claying coloring and polishing kakao just as in java and silan to assist drying they wash off the pulp so in venezuela and often in trinidad with the same object they put earth or clay on the beans in venezuela it is a heavy rough coat and in trinidad a film so thin that it is usually not visible in venezuela where fermentation is often only allowed to proceed for one day the use of fine red earth may possibly be a value it certainly gives the beans a very pretty appearance they look as though they have been moistened and rolled in cocoa powder but in trinidad where the fermentation is a lengthy one the use of clay though hallowed by custom is quite unnecessary in the report of the commission of inquiry we read concerning claying that quote it is said to prevent the bean from becoming moldy in wet weather to improve its marketable value by giving it a bright and uniform appearance and to help preserve its aroma end quote in the appendix to this report the following recommendation occurs the claying of kakao ought to be avoided as much as possible and when necessary only sufficient to give a uniform color ought to be used in my opinion manufacturers would do well to discourage entirely the claying of kakao either in trinidad or venezuela for from their point of view it has nothing to recommend it one percent of clay is sufficient to give a uniform color but occasionally considerably more than this is used if we are to believe reports deliberate adulteration is sometimes practice thus in how jose formed his cocoa estate we read a cocoa dealer of our day to give a uniform color to the miscellaneous brands he has purchased from Pedro dick or sammy will wash the beans in a heat with a mixture of starch sour oranges gum arabic and red ochre this mixture is always boiled i can recommend the chinos in this dodge who are all adepts in all sorts of adulteration schemes they even add some grease to this mixture so as to give the beans that brilliant gloss which you see sometimes in trinidad the usual way of obtaining a gloss is by the curious operation known as dancing which is performed on the moistened beans after the clay has been sprinkled on them it is a quaint sight to see a circle of seven or eight colored folk slowly treading a heap of beans the dancing may proceed for any period up to an hour and as they tread they sing some weird native chant somewhat impressed i remarked to the planter that it had all the appearance of an incantation he replied that the process cost two d per hundred weight dancing makes the beans look smooth shiny and even and it separates any beans that may be stuck together in clusters it may make the beans rounder and it is said to improve their keeping properties but this remains to be proved on the whole if it is considered desirable to produce a glossy appearance it is better to use a polishing machine the weight of the cured cacao bean planters and some others may be interested to know the comparative sizes of the beans from the various producing areas of the world some ideas of these can be gained by considering the relative weights of the beans as purchased in england kind granada average weight of one bean 1.0 grams number of beans to the pound 450 para 1.0 grams 450 beans to the pound bahia 1.1 grams 410 beans to the pound acra 1.2 grams 380 beans to the pound trinidad 1.2 grams 380 beans to the pound camaroons 1.2 grams 380 beans to the pound silan 1.2 grams 380 beans to the pound caracas 1.3 grams 350 beans to the pound machala 1.4 grams 330 beans to the pound arriba 1.5 grams 300 beans to the pound carupano 1.6 grams 280 beans to the pound the yield of the cacao tree the average yield of cacao has in the past generally been overstated whether this is because the planter is an optimist or because he wishes others to think his efforts are crowned with exceptional success or because he takes a simple pride in his district it is hard to tell probably the tendency has been to take the finer estates and put their results down as the average of the thousands of flowers that bloom on one tree during the year on an average only about 20 develop into mature pods and each pod yields about one and one third ounces of dry cured cacao taking the healthy trees with the neglected the average yield is from one and a half to two pounds of commercial cacao per tree this seems very small and those who hear it for the first time often make a rapid mental calculation of the amazing number of trees that must be needed to produce the world supply at least 250 million trees or again taking the average yield per acre as 400 pounds we find that there must be well over a million acres under cacao cultivation at the government station at aburi gold coast three plots of cacao gave in 1914 an average yield of over eight pounds of cacao per tree and in 1918 some 468 trees a melano gave as an average 7.8 pounds per tree this suggests what might be done by thorough cultivation it suggests a great opportunity for the planters that without planting one more tree they might quadruple the world's production the work which has been started by the agricultural department in trinidad of recording the yield of individual trees has shown that great differences occur further it has generally been observed that the heavy bearing trees of the first year have continued to be the heavy bearers and the poor yielding trees have remained poor during subsequent years the report rightly concludes that the question of detecting the poor bearing trees on an estate and having them replaced by trees raised from selected stock or budded or grafted trees of known prolific and other good qualities is deserving of the most serious consideration by planters the kind of cacao that manufacturers like planters have suggested to me that if the users and producers of cacao could be brought together it would be to their mutual advantage permit me to conceive a meeting and report an imaginary conversation planter you know we planters work a little in the dark we don't know quite what to strive after tell me exactly what kind of cacao the manufacturers want manufacturer every buyer and manufacturer has his tastes and preferences and planter don't hedge manufacturer the cacao of each producing area has its special characters even as the wine from a country and part of the good manufacturer's art is the art of blending planter what good with bad manufacturer no good of one type with a good of another type planter what do you mean exactly by good manufacturer by good i mean large ripe well-cured beans by indifferent i mean unripe and unfermented by abominable i mean germinated moldy and grubby beans happily the last class is a quite small one planter you don't mean to tell me that only the good cacao sells manufacturer unfortunately no there are users of inferior beans practically all the cacao produced good and indifferent is bought by someone most manufacturers prefer the fine healthy well-fermented kinds planter well-fermented they have a strange way of showing their preference why they often pay more for guaya kill than they do for granada cacao yet guaya kill is never properly fermented whilst that from granada estates is perfectly fermented manufacturer agreed just as you would pay more for a badly trained thoroughbred than for a well-trained mongrel it's the breed they pay for the guaya kill breed is peculiar there is nothing else like it in the world you might think the tree has been grafted onto a spice tree it has a fine characteristic aroma which is so powerful that it masks the presence of a high percentage of unfermented beans however if guaya kill cacao was well fermented it would subject to the iron laws of supply and demand fetch a still higher price and there would not be the loss there is in a wet season when the guaya kill cacao being unfermented goes moldy i think in granada they plant for high yield and not for quality for the bean is small and approaches the inferior calabaccio breed its value is maintained by an amazing evenness and uniform excellence during curing the way in which it is prepared for the market does great credit to the planters planter they don't play there do they manufacturer no and yet it is practically impossible to find a moldy bean in granada estates cacao evidently claying is not a necessity in granada planter ha ha by that i suppose you insinuate that it is not a necessity in trinidad where the curing is also excellent or in venezuela what is the buyer's objection to claying manufacturer simply that claying is camouflage actually the buyer doesn't mine so long as the clay is not too generously used he objects to paying for beans and getting clay however it's really too bad to color up with clay the black cacao from diseased pods it might deceive even an experienced broker planter ha ha then it's a very simple practice i don't think that ever gets beyond the local tropical market i know the merchants judge largely by the skin but i thought the london broker manufacturer you see it's like this just as you associate a certain label with a particularly good brand of cigar so the planters mark on the bag and the external appearance of the beans influence the broker by long association but just as you cannot truly judge a cigar by the picture on the box so the broker has to consider what is under the shell of the bean one or two manufacturers go further but don't trust merely to tasting with their eyes they only come to a conclusion when they have roasted a sample planter but a buyer can get a shrewd idea without roasting surely you agree well what exactly does he look for manufacturer depends what nationality the bean is i mean whether it was grown in venezuela brazil trinidad or the gold coast in general he likes beans with a good break that is beans which under the firm pressure of a thumb and forefinger break into small crisp nibs closeness or cheesiness or danger signals warnings of lack of fermentation so is a slate colored interior he prefers a pale even colored interior cinnamon chocolate or cafe color and planter one moment i've heard before of planters being told to ferment and cure until the bean is a cinnamon color why man you couldn't get a pale brown interior with beans of the forestero or cabacillo type if you fermented them to rottenness manufacturer true well if the breed on your plantation is purple forestedal and more than half of the cacayo in the world is you must develop as much brown in the beans as possible they should have the characteristic refreshing odor of raw cacayo together with a faint vinegary odor the buyer is much dislike any foreign smell any moldy hammy or cheesy odor planter and where did the foreign odors come from manufacturer that's debatable some come from bad fermentations due to dirty fermentaries abnormal temperatures or unripe cacayo some come from smoky or imperfect artificial drying some come from mold unfurmented cacayo is liable to go moldy so is germinated or overripe cacayo with broken shells some cacayo unfortunately gets wet with seawater there always seems to me something pathetic in the thought of finely cured cacayo being drowned in seawater as it goes out and open boats to the steamer planter you see we haven't peers and jetties everywhere and often it's a long journey to them well you've told me the buyers note break color and aroma anything else manufacturer they like large beans partly because largeness suggests fineness and partly because with large beans the percentage of shell is less small flat beans are very wasteful and unsatisfactory and they are nearly all shell and very difficult to separate from the shell planter when there's a drought we can't help ourselves we produce quantities of small flat beans manufacturer it must be trying to be at the mercy of the weather however the weather doesn't prevent the dirt being picked out of the beans buyers don't like more than half a percent of rubbish i mean stones dried twig like pieces of pulp dust etc left in the cacayo neither do they like to see cobs that is two or more beans stuck together nor planter how about gloss manufacturer the beauty of a polished bean attracts although they know the beauty is less than skin deep planter and washing manufacturer in my opinion washing is bad leaves the shell too fragile i believe in hamburg they used to pay more for washed beans although very little i suppose less than five percent of the world's cacayo is washed but in london many buyers prefer the great unwashed however brokers are conservative and would probably look on unwashed salon with suspicion planter well i have been very interested in everything you have said and i think every planter should strive to produce the very best he can but he does not get much encouragement manufacturer how was that planter there is insufficient difference between the price of the best and the common manufacturer unfortunately that is beyond any individual manufacturers control the price is controlled by the european and new york markets i'm afraid that as long as there is so large demand by the public for cheap cocos so long will there be keen competition amongst buyers for the commoner kinds of beans planter the manufacturer should keep some of his own men on the spot to do his buying they would discriminate carefully and the differences in price offered would soon educate the planters manufacturer true but as each manufacturer requires cacayo from many countries and districts this would be a very costly enterprise several manufacturers have had their own buyers in certain places in the tropics for some years and it is generally agreed that this has acted as an incentive to the growers to improve quality but in the main we have to look to the various government agricultural departments to instruct and encourage the planters in the use of the best methods end of chapter three