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HE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1884. 



OOGOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



I. — Cocoa. 



We purpose to give au elaborate article on cocoa culture, 

 derived from sources which may well be reckoned among 

 the very best. "With this we do not mean to assert that 

 other sources may not furnish very important and valu- 

 able informations on the subject, though they may be of 

 a less comprehensive description. 



Among these an article deserves to be mentioned of the 

 celebrated Boussingault, who gives us many very interest- 

 ing particulars about the cocoa. With these particulars 

 we will preface our article, by giving them intact. 



" The cocoa-tree is generally known in the tropical parts 

 of America; when it first became known, it was only 

 cultivated in Mexico, and more especially where the natives 

 were the original Toltecs and Astecs, namely in Guate- 

 mala and Nicaragua. 



in the reign of Montezuma, the Spaniards transported 

 the tree to the Canary Islands, to Venezuela and to the 

 Antilles. 



'the cocoa-tree demands a rich, deep and humid soil ; 

 nothing suits better than cleared forest-land. All the 

 plantations have the same aspect ; they are spots pro- 

 tected from wind, at a short distance from the sea, or 

 on the banks of rivers. 



When a plot of ground is judged fit for the culture, 

 the first care is to provide for shade. If the ground has 

 to be cleared, the trees that are in bloom are allowed 

 to stand, or else plants of rapid growth are set, such as 

 bananas (Erytlu'ina Vmbrosa), 



South of the equator, in the Province of Guayaquil, 

 the seeds are immediately planted, while in Venezuela the 

 seeds are first made to germinate in nurseries, taking all 

 possible care to protect the young plant from the heat 

 of the sun's rays. The seed germinates in eight or ten 

 days. When two years old, the cocoa-tree has attained 

 a height of one metre ; at that period it is topped. The 

 tree blooms generally at the age of two years and a 

 half, iu a favourable climate, viz., where the temper- 

 ature is 27 a. 29 degrees Celsius. 



There are few plants the blossoms of which are so 

 small, especially as compared with the volume of the 

 fruit, as the cocoa-tree. A bud measured by me when 

 it was just blown, proved to be no larger than four 

 millimetres, in diameter. The corona bore ten silvery 

 leaflets, ranged round five pistils. 



The blossoms are not isolated but in clusters, immedi- 

 ately on the stem and at all heights, also ou the parent- 

 branches, even on the ligneous roots sticking out a little 

 above the surface of the ground. 



Between the fall of the blossoms and the period of 

 maturity of the fruit a space of four months elapses. 

 The fruit, commonly called cabasses, is divided into four 

 lobes; the weight varies between 300 and 500 grammes. 

 The pips or beans are taken out and dried in the sun ; 

 at night they are shaken out in heaps under a shed. 

 Very soon they begin to ferment, which might become 

 injurious if allowed to continue. From 100 kilogr. of 

 kernels Boussingault has seen as much as 45 a 50 kilogr. 

 of dry cocoa won in a hacienda (plantation), fit for com- 

 merce. A cocoa-tree, seven or eight years old, furnishes 

 yearly on an average 075 kilogr. of dry cocoa. At Gigante, 

 in the olovati d regions of Magdalena, the yield is greater, 

 being there 2 kilograms. 



The cocoa-beans are peeled by the action of a moderate 

 heat; the husk theu becomes brittle and is removed by 

 a winnowing apparatus. By roasting, the bean obtains. 

 like the coffee-bean, an aroma, arising from a small pro- 

 portion of a volatile principle; this is the aroma that 

 distinguishes the chocolate. 



Tlii- cocoa-beans are rich in nourishing matter. Besides 

 a large proportion of fatty malter, they contain an azotic 

 substance, agreeing with albumen and caseine, as also theo- 

 bromine ami other matter. These constituents, however, 

 laiv as to quantity, according to the habitat. All this 

 appears from numerous analyses, made in the Conservatoire 

 des Artt <t Metiers, and elsewhere. One of the results of 

 such an analysis, made of a species of cocoa from Trinidad, 

 is as follows: — Butter, gluten, theobromine, asparagine, a 

 species of gum yielding niueic acid, free and combine^ 



tartaric acid, soluble cellulose, ash, and some undefiuable 

 matters. 



The peeled cocoa bean after roasting is known to be 

 the basis of chocolate. The French chocolates contain 55 

 a 59 per cent of sugar, the Spanish only 40 a 53 per cent. 



The genuine, unsophisticated chocolate consists only of 

 cocoa and sugar; the latter substance added in too great 

 quantity would deteriorate the quality. When Boussin- 

 gault had to undertake a distant expedition in America, 

 he took with him a provision of chocolate which he purposely 

 prepared of 60 parts of cocoa and 20 parts of sugar, 

 which compound agreed with 



Sugar 20 parts. 



Butter 41 „ 



Albumen 10 „ 



rhospbates 3 „ 



Other matters 2G „ 



This chocolate formed for his purpose a useful addition 

 to the allotments of dried flesh (tasqjo) and biscuit of 

 maize and cassave-cakes. 



The Mexicans made of cocoa, sugar and a little maize 

 meal a dough, which they called chocolate. 



Up to the sixteenth century travellers differed consider- 

 ably in their opinions about chocolate. Acosta condemned 

 it; Fernando Cortez on the other hand exaggerated its 

 virtues, by affirming that on taking one cup of the 

 beverage in the morniug, you could march the whole day 

 long without taking any other nourishment. In France, 

 too, the new beverage had its advocates and detractors. 

 Madame de Sevigue writing to her daughter says : — 



" I was desirous of becoming reconciled to chocolate ; 

 the day before yesterday I took some after dinner as a 

 digestive, to be able to sup well in the evening, and I 

 took some yesterday too as a nourishment, to be able to 

 fast till the evening ; all resulted to my desire, and there- 

 fore I now find chocolate a good thing, for you can do 

 with it what you like." 



So much is certain, that chocolate contains in a small 

 volumo a great quantity of nourishment. Humboldt 

 reminding that it has been rightly said that in Africa 

 rice, gum and the butter of Shea enables a man to cross 

 the desert, adds the observation that, in the new world, 

 he was enabled to ascend the high mountain-plains of the 

 Andes, and cross the vast forests by the use of choco- 

 late and maize meal. 



In consequence of the combination of albumen, fat, 

 sugary substances and phosphates, the cocoa reminds us 

 of the composition of milk, the beverage, according to 

 Prout, that is the type of every nourishing principle. 



As soon as man attains a certain degree of civilization, 

 he often adds to his food plants that effect his organism 

 like fermented liquors. Like wine used in moderation 

 these matters act beneficially on the digestion; they 

 stimulate the memory, invigorate the imagination, and 

 excite a feeling of well-being, without inducing that 

 uncomfortable reaction, which is but too often the con- 

 sequence of the abuse of alcoholic drinks. 



It is an interesting fact that the various races of men, 

 even those most remote from each other, and having 

 never been iu communication or relation with each other, 

 have prepared stimulants from certain vegetable pro- 

 ductions. In China it is tea, in Arabia coffee, in Peru 

 coca, in Paraguay maize, in Mexico cocoa, etc. Some use 

 the leaves, others the fruit, beans, pips or kernels of 

 plants that have no resemblance whatever with each other 

 — at least in a botanical sense — and yet all these bever- 

 ages, notwithstanding the difference of derivation and 

 qualities, act in the same way on the nervous system 

 and the digestion. The cause of this must be explained 

 by all these various plants' possessing certain substances 

 that have the constituents of alkaloids and like pro- 

 perties; in coffee it is the cafeine, iu tea and burnt maize, 

 the theine; in cocoa, it is the theobromine, iu the coca 

 leaves it is the cocaine. So the Chinese, the Arabs, the 

 Peruvians, the Indians of Paraguay, the Incas, the Astecs 

 were all under the influence of the same active principle 

 when they used their customary beverages. 



The cacao, called by the English cocoa, is the fruit of 

 a tree Theobroma cacao. Other trees belonging to the 

 order Suttneriaceae, as Theobroma tricolor, Th. Speciosum, 

 Hi. Sylvestre, Th. Subincanum, etc., also yield a similar fruit. 



The cocoa- tree proper is a native of the tropica! region 



