CHAPTER XIII 



HARVESTING AND TRANSPORTING 



Fruiting Age. The age at which cocoa trees commence 

 to bear fruit varies in different countries. In the Gold 

 Coast and San Thome fruit usually is produced when 

 the trees are from three to four years of age. Dodd 

 informs the writer that cocoa trees in Southern Nigeria 

 also commence to bear fruit at this age. According to 

 a report by the Governor of Fernando Po, fruit is not 

 produced in that island until the trees are four or five 

 years of age. Trees three and a half years of age produce 

 fruit in Samoa and also in Trinidad and Ceylon. 



In Ecuador, cocoa trees do not bear fruit until the 

 sixth year, while in Grenada the trees do not commence 

 to bear a great crop of fruit until the fifth year. 



Preuss mentions that the Nicaraguan-criollo cocoa 

 tree does not commence bearing in Nicaragua until it is 

 six years of age, but the same variety produces fruit in 

 Ceylon at least two years earlier. 



It is most essential to harvest the fruit at the proper 

 time to ensure the beans being correctly fermented and 

 cured, and placed on the market in good condition. 

 The beans of immature fruits are not properly developed, 

 and after being fermented and cured become shrivelled 

 and unsightly. Undeveloped beans do not ferment 

 readily when placed in the fermenting receptacles, and 

 when mixed with well-ripened beans the cured product 

 will contain a number of imperfectly fermented, shrivelled 

 beans. 



On the other hand, when ripe fruits are allowed to hang 

 for too long a time upon the trees fermentation often 

 commences in the fruit and the beans germinate. When 

 mixed in the fermenting receptacles with beans of a proper 

 degree of ripeness, those which have already been sub- 



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