COCOA-GROWING COUNTRIES 475 



In Honduras the cocoa from Gualan near Omoa is 

 considered the best. 



In San Salvador the culture has been wholly 

 abandoned, but has been taken up again some twenty 

 years ago. 



The produce is treated as in the other parts of 

 Central America ; after one or two days' fermenting it 

 is washed. 



As in the Mexican and Guatemalan cocoa the taste 

 of the San Salvador produce is sweet and the colour 

 fine, but the aroma is very feeble. 



Preuss l gives a description of a plantation near 

 Sonsonate. He obtained the impression that cocoa could 

 grow very well here and the cultivation would be a 

 success. It had, however, been neglected for a long 

 time. The varieties cultivated were again " Lagarto " 

 (Theobroma pentagona) and another variety, much 

 like Criollo. The beans are round but small, white or 

 slightly violet. As shade trees were used : Chico 

 Zapote (Achras Sapota), Zapota Mamey (Lucuma 

 mammosa), Breadfruit (Artocarpus incisa), Mamey 

 (Mammea americana), three kinds of Inga, etc. 



No cocoa of any importance is exported ; about 

 50,000 kilograms are imported yearly from Guayaquil 

 (Ecuador). 



Nicaragua 



Nicaragua is the most important cocoa country of 

 the Central American republics. 



It is not only famous^ for its well-known Criollo, the 

 Nicaragua Criollo, which gives the largest beans of all 

 the cocoa varieties (see Chapter V.), but the methods 

 of cultivation are more careful here than in the 

 neighbouring republics. 



A few comparatively small plantations are situated 

 near the little town of Grenada (Nicaragua Lake), but 

 the best-managed are near Nandaime (Pacific coast). 

 The plantations " Valle Menier" and "Las Mercedes" 



1 Preuss, Expedition, p. 266. 



