DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 387 
In Guam sappan wood ( Biancaea sappan) grows readily, and soon forms hedges or 
thickets of a good height, which serve as excellent wind-breaks. The plantation 
must be kept free from weeds, especially while the plants are still young. Jn Guam 
the weeds are kept down with a thrust hoe, or fusifio.¢ Rows of taro or bananas 
are often planted between those of the cacao, and left while the plants are still 
young. The bananas not only produce fruit, but, growing readily and rapidly, they 
act as shade plants to the tender young cacao. As the cacao matures, these plants 
are removed. The custom of planting shade trees, called ‘‘ madre-cacao,”’ 
prevalent in Guam as in America;? but in exposed situations trees of gabgab 
(Erythrina indiea), lemae, or breadfruit, and dugdug, or fertile breadfruit—all 
quick-growing trees—imay be planted to shade the plants, care being taken to keep 
the lower boughs cut off, so as not to interfere with the growth of the cacao. 
In many parts of the island where the soil is thin, with a substratum of coral, or 
where the soil is poor, the cacao should be planted in holes 2 feet in depth and 
in diameter, filled with good rich soil. This method is called ‘* holing,’’ and is used 
in many tropical countries for other plants as well as for cacao. Dead weeds and the 
refuse from the pods after the seeds have been taken out form an excellent manure, 
and should be placed about the trees or buried near their roots. This practice, how- 
ever, should not be followed if any pods show evidence of disease. In such an event 
all infected pods should be carefully burned. 
Only one stem is allowed to grow until the tree hays reached the height of a meter, 
after which three main branches are allowed to remain. The plant should be kept 
free from suckers, which sometimes sprout out even after the main branches have 
appeared. In about three years from planting the trees will flower, but it is best 
to remove the flowers from young trees, as it is Injurious to them to bear fruit before 
the fourth or fifth year. In Guam the trees bear fruit almost continuously, but there 
are two principal crops each year, The fruit is then gathered in quantities, some of 
the best pods selected for seed, and the rest of the seeds are dried and stored or 
made at once into chocolate. No cacao is exported, except, perhaps, a little sent by 
natives to friends in Manila or given to people leaving the island, as isthe custom in 
Guam. 
In gathering the pods the stalks should be cut halfway between the pod and the 
tree, care being taken not to tear the bark, as is often done if the pod be removed 
by twisting; for it is in the bark, at the base of the old peduncle that the adven- 
titious buds push forth which produce the crop of the following vear. The beans 
are freed from pulp and guinmy matter, dried in the sun, parched, and ground on 
stone slabs called ‘‘metates’’ with a cylindrical stone rolling-pin called a ‘‘mano,’’ 
just as maize is ground for making tortillas, The ground paste is formed into balls 
is not so 
or lozenge-shaped disks, each large enough to make one cup of chocolate. Chocolate 
as made in Guam is thickened with flour or arrowroot. It is of fine flavor and is not 
adulterated in any way, except by the addition of sugarand flour. The natives scorn 
imported chocolate, saying that it tastes like medicine. The custom of chocolate 
drinking is universal among them. They drink it in the late afternoon, serving it 
quite hot, and offering it to visitors as a matter of etiquette, often accompanying it 
with sponge cake or poundcake, which they have been taught to make by foreigners, 
and which they call ‘‘kéke.”’ 
Cacao beans are sometimes kept in jars and allowed to ‘‘sweat’’ or undergo a sort 
of fermentation, which improves their flavor, but this custom is not universal. 
Many families, after having dried the beans in the sun, keep them until required for 
use, when they toast them as we do coffee, grind them on the family metate, and 
make them into chocolate. Chocolate made from the newly ground bean is especially 
rich and aromatic. 
“eo 
«See Gardens. 
>See Cook, Shade in Coffee Culture, U. 8. Dept. Agr., Div. Botany, Bull. No. 
25, p. 8, 1901. 
