8 COCOA : ALL ABOUT IT. 



but when well cured, is mild, has a very pleasant llavour, and 

 is much valued by manufacturers on that account. 



Bahia produces large quantities of Cocoa which, formerly, 

 was of a very inferior quality, principally owing to careless 

 cultivation and indiscriminately mixing all that was brought from 

 the interior, some of which was wild and uncured. Recent years 

 have entirely altered this state of things, and the good quality of 

 " fermented " Bahian Cocoa is fully recognised. 



A little Cocoa is grown in the low-lying parts of Rio Janeiro, 

 but it is not to be met with beyond this latitude. 



At the present day, the smaller islands of the Antilles divide 

 the glory of supply with the American Continent. The Great 

 Antilles, including Cuba, San Domingo, and Jamaica, although of 

 such large area, and in a favourable latitude, only produce inferior 

 Cocoa ; while Guadaloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Grenada, and 

 Trinidad not only produce large quantities, but some of the finest 

 qualities grown. Dominica was the first of the Antilles on which 

 the Spaniards cultivated Cocoa, the first Cocoa tree being planted 

 by M. Dogeron in 1665. 



In Martinique the Cocoa tree is said to be indigenous. All 

 the Cocoa trees were destroyed in 1727 by a terrific hurricane and 

 inundation. A few years afterwards, a royal edict reduced the duty 

 on imports from French Colonies, which encouraged the cultiva- 

 tion so that in 1775 about one-and-a-half million trees were bearing 

 fruit. St. Lucia formerly belonged to France, and, as early as 

 1784, there were over two millions of Cocoa trees under cultivation. 

 It is now a prosperous English Colony. Grenada also belonged 

 to the French, who planted the first Cocoa tree about the year 



