HISTORICAL 9 



place in 1872, and in 1875 it only amounted to 508 

 kilograms. Since that time the export has gradually 

 increased, and now amounts to about 3^ million 

 kilograms. 



Though cocoa plants were imported at an early 

 date into the Dutch East Indies it is said they 

 were introduced into Celebes by the Spaniards as early 

 as 1560 the cultivation was for a long time of very 

 little importance. About the middle of the nineteenth 

 century, regular but small shipments were sent to 

 Amsterdam from Celebes, but nowadays the export from 

 this island is of no value at all. During the last thirty- 

 five years, however, Java has become a cocoa-growing 

 country of some importance. When the cultivation of 

 coffee began to decline, about 1880, many coffee fields 

 were replanted with cocoa, and a steady increase of this 

 area has since taken place. The industry would certainly 

 have become still more important if it had not been 

 hindered by different insect-pests, especially the cocoa- 

 moth and the Helopeltis. The export now amounts 

 to about 2| million kilograms. 



The foregoing figures will already have given an im- 

 pression of the enormous extension of the cultivation and 

 use of cocoa in the last fifty years. This extension is to a 

 great extent the consequence of the invention, in the year 

 1828, by the Dutch manufacturer, C. J. van Houten, of 

 a method of preparing cocoa-powder, by which a great 

 part of the cocoa-butter is removed. The cocoa beans 

 contain about 50 per cent of cocoa-butter, and the old- 

 fashioned cocoa drink was therefore a heavy, though very 

 nourishing food. By the removal of a great part of the 

 fat it is made much more fit for general use, being lighter 

 and more pleasant, and also cheaper. In this way the 

 chocolate-cake industry was succeeded by the " cocoa- 

 powder" industry i.e. the preparation of a powder of 

 pure cocoa containing only a small amount of fat, and 

 soluble in water and in milk ; and this " cocoa-powder " 

 or " cocoa " gradually took the place of the old chocolate 

 cakes. 



