THE COCOA TREE AND ITS FRUIT. 17 



be reached, the pods are cut off with a machete. They are heaped in 

 piles by one set of laborers, while another cuts them open and extracts 

 the contents. A sharp pruning knife is used, and the seeds are often 

 damaged througli carelessness. For extracting the gummy substance 

 and the seeds, an implement made of a beef rib is used. 



" The drying is done on open platforms made of split bamboo and 

 palms, where the cacao is exposed to the sun during three or four days, 

 and, in order that it may dry uniformly and well, laborers are employed 

 to tread it out with bare feet. If not well dried, the bean is apt to 

 ferment, and if excessively dried it shrinks and, finally, turns black. 

 The driers are provided with covers for protection against rain." 



The different methods of fermentation are not described here. The 

 prime object of the sweating or fermentation appears to be to change 

 the inside portion of the bean by absorbing into it products obtained 

 from the fermenting and decomposing pulp, and where this is not 

 accomplished by any of the methods, the bean is classed as unfer- 

 mented, and the product is of lower value. 



The seeds are brought into the market in their crude state, as 

 almond-shaped " beans," which differ in color and somewhat in texture. 

 It is not uncommon to find the external surface more or less covered 

 with a thin, irregular layer of attached earth, but this is almost wholly 

 rubbed off during transportation. Upon the color of shell and kernel, 

 the relative brittleness, the flavor, and the odor depend the market 

 value of the seeds. 



The dried seeds have a papery, brittle shell, which is very smooth 

 on the inside, but which on the outside exhibits, under the microscope, 

 a few short hairs and round excrescences. But these are mostly lost 

 by the rough handling and by the attrition of the seeds with one 

 another during transportation. The kernel consists of two large cotyle- 

 dons or seed-leaves, reddish gray or reddish brown, with a shining, 

 oily surface, the whole crushing rather easily into a loose mass of 

 fragments. The kernel, when dry, has a minute, tough, almost stony 



