30 



Where there is considerable variation in the kind of pods 

 produced, it is better to sort the pods before shelling or breaking 

 them rather than make a mixture composed of the several 

 varieties of beans cultivated, as these are known to require 

 different treatment during preparation for market. For instance 

 CalabaciUo strain, is known to require different treatment to 

 the Crinllo, and the Vriollo again a- different treatment to that 

 required by Forastero. 



The pods when thus collected should be placed in separate 

 lieaps. By some cultivators they are left a day or two before 

 lieing opened, by others they are opened at once and the beans 

 sent on to the curing-house, or IJoucan as it is called in Grenada. 

 The latter practice would be our choice, as it enables the planter 

 to secure his produce from the weather and from the depreda- 

 tions of rats, squirrels and the not infrequent Cacao thief. In 

 the one case the labour is performed by a few pickers and 

 carriers, and the breaking has to wait until sufficient material 

 is secured for a single fermentation, in the latter more hands are 

 required but the picking of a single day is fermen-ted : by itself. 



On large Cacao estates however it is almost impossible to 

 gather or harvest Cacao without having some over-ripe pods and 

 pods with growing beans, among the crop. These should be 

 separated when the breaking takes place, if not before discovered, 

 ,nd treated by themselves, as such material can never make 

 first -class Cacao. 



The wages paid in Trinidad for picking Cacao is from 40 to 

 CO cents per day and is performed by experienced hands. 



. SHELLING OR "BREAKING." 



This operation, as before shewn, is sometimes done in the 

 field and th produce- carried home in bags, or the pods are first 

 carried, and then broken at the curing house. The first practice 

 is the most common, although the latter is to be most commended, 

 as the decaying shells or pods when left on the field, are a 

 fruitful source of disease. 



The operation of shelling or breaking is done with a cutlass 

 or large knife. A cut is made round the middle of the pod, 

 taking care not, to allow the tool to go through the shell so as to 

 injure the beans. The pod is then broken in the middle by a 

 sharp jerk, and thr. beans are taken out and separated from the 

 fibrous tissue of which the placenta is composed. 



. M Nica.agua the pods are generally brought in and 

 liroken under cover near the curing houses, ^and the, empty 

 jshelis are put into yards f,., ferment,, and to be trodden -into 

 manure by catt>. *,!*, ,(.:?. There is thus little danger of the 

 spread of fungoid diseases, a. no rotten pods are left on the 



