PmnvAnt i, 1884.] 



THE TKOPieAL AQRfCULTURISf. 



S^d 



NOTES ON OHOOOLATE. 



Some iuterestiug notes on Theobroma cacao, the botanic 

 source of chocolate, by the distiuguit-hed French chemist, 

 M. Boussingault, ^ippear in a recent number of the Compted- 

 Ilendus of the Academy of Science. M. Boussingault ob- 

 serves that although the cacao is now very common in 

 the hotter parts of America, at the time of the Spanish 

 conquest it appears to have been only cultivated in Mex- 

 ico, Guatt mala, and Nicaragua. In the time of Montezuma, 

 the Spaniards carried it to the Canaries, to the coast oi 

 Venezuela, and to the "West Indies. It needs a deep, rich, 

 moist soil ; nothing suits it better than newly cleared forest. 

 AU the plantation.s existing present local analogies; they 

 are all in well-sheltered spots on the banks of streams, 

 and not very far from the sea coast. When an eligible 

 site is found, if there be not enougli .shade, it is provided 

 by planting bananas and other quick-growing essences. In 

 Guayaquil, cacao plants are rai.sed tlirect from seeil ; in 

 A'euezuela they are reared in nursery-beds, and afterwards 

 set out. The seed germinates in eight or ten days. In 

 their second year, whtu the plants average three feet in 

 height, they begin to form heads. As a rule, when the 

 temperaturi! is favourable they blossom in the thirtieth 

 month. The best temperature is 27 ° to 2S ^ Cent. (80 ° 

 to 82° Fahr.). Few plants with flowers so small produce 

 such large fruit. A bud measured by M. Boussingault, 

 when on the point of opening, was only one-tenth of an 

 incli across. The flowers appear in clusters all down the 

 branches, and even low down on the stem, and along the 

 ligneous roots which straggle over the surface of the ground. 



Cacao is husked by moderate heat, and the exterior por- 

 tion of the fruit nudered friable by '•vanuage." Like 

 colfee-berries, the fruit acquires in roasting an aroma due 

 to the presence of an aromatic principle in infinitesimal 

 quantity. The cacao fruit, husked, lightly roasted and the 

 seeds separated, is the basis of chocolate. French prepar- 

 ations of chocolate usually contain 56 to 69 per cent of 

 .sugar ; Italian chocolates JO to 53 per cent. Pure chocolate 

 should contain nothing but cacao and sugar. Probably any 

 excess of the latter deteriorates the peculiar properties of 

 the former. M. Boussingault found that for long journeys 

 in that part of America, a special mixtm-e of 80 per cent 

 of cacao with 20 per cent of sugar formed a very welcome 

 and valuable addition to the usual traveller's rations of 

 air-dried meat, maize biscuit, and cass.iva cakes. 



Cacao is a vegetable compound of fat, sugar, starch, and 

 certain bone-forming phosphates, which give it a consider- 

 able similarity of roiupositiou to milk, whilst it contains, 

 what milk does not, a certain amount of theobromine and 

 a delicate aromatic prmciple. — Australian Trades Review. 



THE PREPAKATION AND USE OF RHEEA FIBRE. 



BY DH. FOEBES WATSON. 



What is Kheea? This is a specimen of rheea of one 

 length. This is another specimen of rheea of a different 

 length, and here is a specimen of rhec a in the dry, semi- 

 succulent state. When gi-een and fn.sh, these specimens 

 are of course different to what they appear now. and they 

 have characteristics which I shall notice farther on. Un- 

 fortunately, I am not in a position, at this season of the 

 year, to present you with more than this solitary green 

 specimen, for the illustration of one or two points which 

 I should like to lay before you before proceeding with my 

 subject, which, instead of being in the form of a writteii 

 paper, will consist of remarks which I shall endeavour to 

 make as clear as I can. You will observe, on breaking 

 this sample of green rheea. I succeed in getting off a 

 certain quantity of gi-een flbre, tearing it down in this 

 manner. I wi^h to refer, in the first place, to the com- 

 position of the component parts of this bark. The out- 

 side portion consists of a film to which a very distinguished 

 chemi.st has applied the term cutose. Below that there is 

 a bark which contains the green colouring matter of the 

 plant, that is called vasculose, and next to that comes 

 the fibre itself. That fibre, and the bark attached to it. 

 is united to the stem by another princip'e, which is called 

 pectose. Now, the problem of getting the bark separated 

 from the fibre constitutes the great difficulty which has 

 hitherto impeded the use of this fibre. In' China they 

 succeed in removing the baik and other matters, to a cert- 

 ain extent, by means of scraping. They scrape oflf the 

 73 



whole of the bark substance as far as possible, and they 

 produce it in the condition of what is called China grass, 

 of which this is a sample. You will observe from the 

 appearance of the plant itself, that it has nothing of the 

 character of a true grass, and belongs to the exogenous 

 class of plants, ^'ow, up to the present time, the whole 

 of this fibre, as it has appeared in the market, has been 

 prepared by hand. There has been a certain quantity 

 prepared in the dry state by applications which I 

 will afterwards refer to, but so far, in China, the 

 whole of the China grass which has been introduced into 

 the market has been prepared by hand, with the result 

 that the cost of the fibre has never yet been reduced to 

 an extent to make it pay, and you never can have the 

 fibre at a less cost than from £49 to £.50 per ton. It 

 is this which has impeded the introduction of the rheea 

 fibre and so-called "China grass," and their extended tise 

 in this country. During the last twenty or twenty-fivt 

 years many attempts have been ni.ide to manufacture this, 

 and as far back as the year ISCO, when I had the honour 

 of reading a paper in this room upon the plants of Inilia, 

 I showed then a number of most interesting samples, sixty 

 in number, which had been prepared in Bradtortl from 

 this fibre. At that time, and subsequent to that, a laige 

 amount of capital had been expended upon the manufacture 

 of the China grass, and the various fibres ; and a great 

 deal of money has been lost within my own knowledge. 

 I should say I coiJd add up £150,000 of capital which 

 have been sunk in this fibre since that time, all arising 

 from the difficulty of getting it sufficiently cheap. The 

 moment you excited a demand for the fibre, the price 

 rose ; it has even gone up as high as £8.5 a ton ; and this 

 killed the trade. What we have to do tonight is to see 

 whether there are any elements which would lead us to 

 suppose that we can now get it cheaper — that is really the 

 object of my story tonight. The Government of Ini ia 

 has for a great number of years — going back to the days 

 of the East India Company, which took a warm interest 

 in this matter, I may say for the last eighty years, at 

 least — devoted very considerable attention to the qvustion 

 of the introduction of this fibre. The East India Com- 

 pany directed attention to it by importing regularly, year 

 by year, considerable quantities. About five tons, if 1 re- 

 member rightly, was annually sent to this market to afford 

 an opportunity of trying it. It was considered, after a 

 tune, that we had a sufficient knowledge of the fibre and 

 its properties to warrant the authorities in discontinuing 

 the importation. However, in IbG!', Lord Mayo, who took 

 an active interest in all agricultural matters in India, ottered 

 a prize of £5,000 for a machine which would extract this 

 fibre from the green rheea ; and oui- Chairman superin- 

 tended those experiments, which were afterwards carrievl 

 out in 1870 with this object, and his report, I must say, 

 is a model of what a report should be on such a subject. 

 The result of these trials were negative, in the sense that 

 only one machine presented itself for trial, and after ex- 

 amining the whole of the evidence about it. General (then 

 Colonel) Hyde reported that it was not sufficiently good 

 as regarded both the quality and the outturn. It did not 

 fulfil the conditions which the Government indicated shoidd 

 be fulfilled, and only a small prize, £1.500, was awarded 

 to the machine. After that the matter was referred to 

 the India-office, and various attempts were made, with w hich 

 I had somewhat to do, to see what could he done in order 

 to have a test of machines in this country ; and at one 

 time I was in hopes that we might dbtain a sufficient 

 quantity of green material to have a practical trial here 

 on the spot, and that we .should have : t laa.st one oppor- 

 tunity of testing the fibic in its green condition. Thosi- 

 hopes were not fulfilled. A certain geiileman kiLdly pro- 

 mised to let me have the whole of his c: op of fibre, which 

 he expected to cover something like twenly-five acres; but 

 his imagination had been such, that on my sending to •.\ 

 district not far from Marseilles, and mal.ing arrangements 

 with the railway companiss to liave the whole of the crop 

 conveyed graiide ritisse, there vas only i bout two or thref 

 acres planted with rheea, and the crop was very inferior, 

 not to say "scrubby," throughout; couf ( quently, I only 

 got 1| tons instead of 25 tons; thcreftre, that attempt 

 failed. A good many experiments were made to see whe- 

 ther it would be possible to extrr.ct th.- fibre fiom the 

 stalks in their dry state, and these expirimeuts showed 



