78 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



about 60 per cent. This gives a means of estimating the ap- 

 proximate weight of the cured crop from the weight of the 

 fresh beans. The brands of cacao which come into the market 

 from Ecuador are commonly known as Balao, Arriba, Mach- 

 ala, Manabi, and Esmeraldas. From Brazil we receive brands 

 of cacao known as Bahia and Para, and from Venezuela come 

 the Caracas, Maracaibo, and Cabello cocoas. The most impor- 

 tant cocoa markets are Hamburg, Havre, London, Amsterdam, 

 Lisbon, and New York. The wholesale Hamburg price for 

 cocoa ranges from 12 to 24 cents per pound for various sorts 

 of this product. 



The similarity in names in a number of tropical agricultural 

 products has led to much confusion in the minds of readers 

 not intimately acquainted with the Tropics. It may be well, 

 therefore, to call attention to some of these terms which have 

 caused confusion, particularly in connection with cacao prod- 

 ucts. It should perhaps first be mentioned that cocoa butter 

 is the fat of cacao bean and, therefore, differs utterly from 

 coconut butter, a product manufactured from coconut oil. It 

 is unfortunate that coconut has been frequently spelled cocoa- 

 nut, thus causing further confusion with cocoa, one of the 

 products manufactured from the cacao bean. The confusion 

 has been worse confounded by the fact that the specific botani- 

 cal name of cocain is coca and that kola nuts have been spelled 

 indifferently cola and kola. The tree from which cocoa and 

 chocolate are derived is properly known as cacao and the beans 

 produced by the tree are usually known as cacao beans, 

 although occasionally they are also called cocoa beans. There 

 has also been considerable looseness in the use of the terms 

 cocoa and chocolate. In preparing cocoa powder for use in 

 manufacturing cocoa for drinking, a considerable part of the 

 cocoa fat is removed by hydraulic pressure and the residue is 

 treated with carbonates to produce a better suspension in 

 water. Cocoa, as properly used, therefore means the ground 

 mass obtained from the fermented and roasted cacao bean after 



