COCOA-GROWING COUNTRIES 325 



on drying platforms. These can be moved along rails, 

 and are run every night into the drying house and 

 taken out early every morning. 



On the estate " Monte Cafe " the cocoa is dried 

 artificially in a large hall. The tables, on which it is 

 spread out, are arranged one above the other and are 

 in contact with hot-air pipes. During the first hours 

 the temperature is maintained at 50 or 60 cent, to 

 prevent moulding ; after that it is allowed to fall back 

 to 35 cent. Generally the drying is finished within 

 thirty hours. 



Sorting. When the seeds have been dried they 

 must be sorted. This is generally done by hand, on 

 some large plantations by machines ; but as these grade 

 by size only, it is necessary to go through again in 

 order to separate the fine seeds from those which are 

 less good. Usually four-fifths of the harvest consists of 

 good seeds. The second quality are those seeds which 

 have been well fermented but are of small size. The 

 third quality contains principally the seeds which have 

 not been fermented but have been found under the 

 trees after an attack by rats, or the black seeds from 

 dry pods which have been overlooked in picking, also 

 the fermented seeds which have become mouldy. They 

 are packed in bags which contain 70 kilograms, and are 

 transported on small waggons to the steamer which 

 every week goes round the island. In the port of San 

 Thome the cocoa is transferred to the Portuguese 

 packet-boats which take it to Lisbon. 



While years ago the cocoa from San Thome stood in 

 bad repute, at the present time the produce of some 

 rocas can compete with good South American cocoa. 



Varieties. In San Thome two or three local 

 varieties can be clearly distinguished ; all foreign kinds 

 which have been imported years ago after one or two 

 generations assume the habit of this type, Chevalier 

 thinks by adaptation, not by hybridisation ; but this 

 remains still to be elucidated. The imported trees 

 themselves as they grow older give pods which are more 



