170 COCOA 



the individual who does better work than his fellow- 

 planter does not directly reap his reward in higher prices. 

 This is to be regretted. Indeed, we have been told by 

 planters that it does not pay to take more than a certain 

 amount of trouble in fermenting and curing their cacao, 

 as they obtain the same price any way, but if all planters 

 worked down to the minimum quality, the price obtained 

 for beans from that district would fall, and all would 

 suffer. At present the planter who produces above the 

 average is a benefactor to his fellow-planters, and he who 

 produces below the average quality lowers the price of 

 the whole production of that district. 



Any district which could establish and successfully 

 maintain a standard which prohibited the presence of un- 

 ferm-ented, diseased, germinated, or grubby beans, and 

 which fixed a maximum percentage for rubbish and 

 shrivelled beans, and could at the same time put on the 

 market large consignments of such beans, suitably 

 marked, would be sure of establishing a reputation in 

 the London market, and as a result obtain high prices. 



Unripe Cacao. In gathering the pods the planter 

 should take care that only the ripe ones are picked. 1 If 

 the pods are gathered before they are ripe, a poor yield 

 is obtained and the cacao is of low quality the beans 

 being small, flat, and tough, with a whitish break. And, 

 further, the shell is very difficult to remove. Unripe 

 beans do not undergo the normal fermentation. In an 

 experiment on our own estate in Trinidad unripe pods 

 were purposely picked. In fermenting, the temperature 

 never rose above 95 F. (i.e., 15 F. below the tempera- 

 ture of a heap of the same size of ripe beans), and the 

 beans appeare4 gummy and slimy. With ripe cacao the 

 average yield of dry cured cacao is about 36 per cent, 

 of the wet cacao put in the sweat-box. With this unripe 

 cacao the yield was only half that usually obtained. 



Over-ripe Cacao. It must naturally happen on estates 

 which have insufficient labour that the pods are often 

 left on the tree after they have become ripe. As an 



1 The planting of a single variety on a plantation, as Mr. 

 W. H. Johnson has pointed out, would greatly facilitate this. 



