CH. IV] COFFEE, CACAO OR CHOCOLATE, KOLA, ETC. 71 



Other species of cacao, e.g. Theobroma pentagona, are also 

 occasionally used as cacao producers. 



The cacao plant must be cultivated, generally speaking, 

 under a certain amount of shade, more especially to protect it 

 against the wind, which produces disastrous results. The 

 favourite shade trees, both in the West Indies and the East, 

 have hitherto been species of Erythrina, known in the West 

 Indies as Madre del Cacao, or Bois Immortelle, in the East as 

 dadap, but in recent years some variety is coming in, the various 

 species of rubber especially, and more particularly the Castilloa, 

 being employed as shade trees, and themselves yielding direct 

 financial returns. The shade trees are usually planted at about 

 50 feet apart, and the cacao under them at 12 or 15 feet apart. 

 The latter begins to bear fruit in about its sixth year, and the 

 yield increases for some years. A good average yield of dried 

 cacao " beans " is about 3 cwt. per acre per annum. 



The amount of shade necessary varies with the climate. 

 Some of the West Indian Islands, with very damp air, and 

 apparently with hilly ground and very little wind (mostly on 

 the leeward side of the islands) are able to dispense with shade 

 altogether. 



The tree is apparently somewhat narrowly limited in range 

 of temperature that will suit its growth, for it only succeeds in 

 Ceylon at elevations from 200 to 2500 feet, and not very well at 

 either of these extremes. In more continental climates it is 

 grown at higher elevations, e.g. 3500 feet in Uganda, and it is 

 said even to 5000 or over in Ecuador. 



The ripe fruits are picked by means of a tool not unlike 

 a reaping hook, it being important that they should be cleanly 

 severed from the stem, and they are then opened by means of 

 knives or otherwise and the mucilaginous seeds shaken out. 

 The treatment of these seeds differs slightly in different coun- 

 tries. In Ceylon they are piled in heaps and covered with sand 

 and plantain leaves, or placed in tubs or vats and similarly 

 covered, in order to ferment. The heaps are turned over at 

 intervals, and at the end of from 2 to 4 or even 10 days the 

 fermentation is complete 1 , when the seeds are taken out, and 

 1 It takes least time with the best varieties. 



