the Cacao Plant. 267 
A number of women are then employed for one or two hours 
in rubbing them with their hands and cleaning them as thoroughly 
as possible from any remaining gummy or mucilaginous matter. 
They are then spread out in the drying house and frequently 
turned until dry, and are then packed in bags for the market. 
Some twenty years ago most of the Trinidad marks came into 
the market clayed; this was done by rubbing the cocoa, when 
taken from the sweating house, with a red or yellow clay, and 
was supposed to assist the keeping qualities of the beans. Clayed 
cocoa from Trinidad is now the exception. Cocoa from Caraccas 
is now one of the few clayed varieties. 
A great difference of opinion exists as to what chemical 
changes take place during fermentation, and at present I think 
nothing definite is known. The fermentation of cocoa may be 
looked upon as essentially alcoholic, the sugar of the pulp be- 
coming converted into alcohol and carbonic acid. 
The various names under which the varieties of the Theobroma 
Cacao are known do not constitute species, but must be merely 
considered as varieties of one original species. 
These varieties probably owe theirorigin to seed variation, 
together with the influence of soil and climate. The classification 
of Mr. Morris, Director of the Public Gardens and: Plantations in 
Jamaica, was based upon the nomenclature of the best estates in 
Trinidad, and has stood the test of ten years. 
He makes two classes— 
Class I.—Criollo ; 
Class IJ.—Forastero ; 
and he gives the Calabacillo as a variety of the Forastero. 
If we interpret the words Criollo Cacao as native cocoa, 
Forastero as foreign, and Calabacillo as Calabash cocoa, we 
shall have a better definition of the terms. 
The Calabacillo is so named from the fruits resembling those 
of the Calabash tree (Crescentia Cujete). 
The Forastero variety appears to be the most robust, and the 
best producer, but in the generality of plantations are, however, 
so mixed a character that it is difficult to separate the one kind 
from another ; this is a great pity, as it would well pay planters, 
when planting their estates, were they to keep the varieties 
apart. This mixture of varieties has chiefly been brought about 
by the contract system, which is this:—A man obtains so many 
acres of Government virgin land; he has no ready money to pay 
for labour, or trees to plant the same, so gives the estate over to 
contractors. These are men that undertake to plant so many 
cocoa trees on the estate, and it is these men who put in any 
varieties of cocoa they can most easily and cheaply obtain; after 
_ five or six years the trees begin to bear fruits, and the original 
owner comes forward and pays the contractor so much for each 
