26 COCOA : ALL A150UT IT. 



The experience of the planter alone can tell whether the 

 Cacao is thoroughly dry. 



If well cured it should have the outer skin hard, crisp, and 

 separating easily from the bean below. The latter should be firm, 

 bright, and breaking easily on pressure into the familiar Cacao 

 nibs of commerce. 



It will be noticed that, so far, no washing of the Cacao beans 

 has taken place. The process of cleaning is accomplished solely 

 by the alternating operations of rubbing and drying with, as already 

 mentioned in some instances, the aid of red "clay" or earth. 



A healthy Cacao tree in good soil yields from fifty to several 

 hundred pods per annum. The average for well-cultivated trees, 

 at seven years old, should be between eighty and one hundred pods 

 per annum. As it generally takes about eleven pods to yield one 

 pound of cured Cacao, the above would indicate that a good mature 

 Cacao tree, under favourable circumstances, might yield, on an 

 average, not less than seven pounds of cured Cacao. The average 

 yield per tree (at all stages) on an estate of, say, 300 acres, would 

 probably not exceed some two or three pounds p t tree, or (taking 

 230 trees per acre) a return of 4 cwt. to 6 cwt. of cured Cacao 

 per acre. 



Before closing this chapter it may be well clearly to distinguish 

 the Theobroma Cacao, of which we are treating, from the Coker 

 Nut Palm fCocos NitcifcraJ, which grows to the height of 100 

 feet, and produces the large Coker Nut with its hard white lining 

 and the sweet milky juice inside. 



