PICKING. 

 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 

 CalabaoWo strain, is known to require different treatment to 

 the Crinllo, and the Criollo again a different treatment to that 

 required l)y Forastero. 



Tiie pods when thus collected should be placed in separate 

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

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

 j-cnt on to the curing-house, or Boucan 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 sufticient material 

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

 required but the picking of a single day is fermented 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, 

 and treated by themselves, as such material can never make 

 first-class Cacao. 



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

 €0 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 tlie beans. The pod is then broken in the middle by a 

 -sharp jerk, and the beans are taken out and separated from the 

 fibrous tissue of which the placenta is composed. 



In Nicaragua the pods are generally brought in and 

 broken uwler cover near the curing houses, and the empty 

 -shells arc put into yards tu ferment, nnd to be trodden into 

 tnanure by cattle, pijrs, \k". There is thus little danger of the 

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



