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The World's Commercial Products 



in shape, about eight or more inches long, and three or four inches in diameter. The process 

 of blossoming and bearing fruit is completed in about four months, and is continued throughout 

 the whole year ; hence fruits may be gathered at any time of the year, although at certain 

 seasons the principal crops are obtained, for example, in the West Indies in December and 

 January, during the early part of the dry season. 



Picking. The fruit which is hanging low enough to reach it with the hand is gathered 

 by carefully turning it round until it breaks from the stalk ; those which cannot be reached 

 are cut off from the stem and branches by means of a curiously shaped small knife fastened 

 to a long stick. The gathering requires great care, as the buds and blossoms, which are to 

 bring forth the next harvest, are easily injured. 



Neither unripe nor over-ripe fruits yield a good product. The picker judges by the colour 



CACAO FRUIT 



The Beans of two laid bare 



whether a fruit is ripe or not ; moreover, the ripeness may be ascertained by the accustomed 

 ear by tapping the ' pod. 



The rind of the pod is by nature firm, a little woody, but becomes leathery when dried. 

 Each pod contains some sixty seeds, arranged in five or eight rows (mostly five) ; the seeds 

 are white when they are fresh, but brown and covered with a fragile skin or shell when dried. 

 These seeds* which are not unlike beans or almonds, are imbedded in a mass of mucilaginous 

 pulp, of a sweet but acid taste. The seeds only require to be extracted, cured and dried, 

 to become the cacao-beans of commerce. 



Breaking. The pods are left on the ground by the pickers and collected up by women 

 and children into heaps to be opened. This operation is known as "breaking cacao." 

 The .pods are often opened with a cutlass,,which should not be too sharp. Care is needed so- 

 as just to cut through the rind and- not injure the seeds. The opened pod is taken and the 

 slimy mass of seeds and pulp scooped out with the fingers, and finally conveyed to the curing 

 house in baskets, sacks, Qr other convenient means, with or without the aid of mule or donkey 

 carts, according to the nature of the estate and other circumstances. 



The empty rinds are left in heaps on the field to rot and help to fertilise the soil. In case 

 of attack' by some of the fungoid- diseases it is very incautious to leave the pods above ground, 

 as they only form nurseries for the propagation of disease. In these cases the best course is 

 to bury them. 



