Y2 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. II 



the thin watery fermented mass of outer pulp is washed off by 

 rinsing in water. Fermentation also ensures the penetration of 

 water into the interior of the seeds, causing them to swell out 

 and giving them a plump and " bold " appearance. 



The fermented and washed beans have next to be dried, 

 which is done by spreading them out on mats in the sun for 

 a few hours daily, and keeping them heaped up for the rest of 

 the time. A few days of this treatment causes them to dry in 

 the same plump and bold outline which they had while still 

 wet. In very wet or sunless weather the beans are dried by 

 artificial heat in closed chambers, hot air being drawn over them 

 in various ways, but the results are not in general so good as 

 those obtained by drying in the sun. 



In some places the beans are simply dried without any 

 fermentation, but this gives a poor product. In the West 

 Indies the washing is often dispensed with. In Venezuela the 

 cacao is " clayed," the wet beans from the fermentation being 

 sprinkled with dried and powdered red clay, and afterwards 

 rubbed between the hands to remove the mucilage. 



Once dry, the beans are simply bagged and exported to 

 Europe. Lately, however, a manufactory of prepared cacao and 

 chocolate has been opened in Ceylon. 



The cultivation of cacao is thus a fairly simple one, and as 

 no manufacture is required upon the spot, it commends itself to 

 " native " proprietors, and also to planters in countries where 

 labour is not very plentiful. This is perhaps or probably the 

 reason why its cultivation has grown so enormously in West 

 Africa during the last ten years. 



In recent years the cultivation of cacao has shown signs of 

 becoming more scientific. In 1897 and later there was a con- 

 siderable outbreak in Ceylon of a canker attacking the stems. 

 Warned by the fate of coffee in the island, the planters of cacao 

 were alarmed, and early measures for the eradication of the 

 canker were taken, under the advice of the Botanical depart- 

 ment. These have been almost entirely successful, except in so 

 far as the cultivation of the old Criollo cacao, which gave to the 

 Ceylon product its very good name and high prices, has been 

 largely replaced by that of the Forastero varieties, whose purple 



