THE COCOA TREE AND ITS FRUIT 17 
lengthened by joints as oftenasrequired. As the twigs are very tough 
the blow with this instrument must be strong and well aimed, and the 
laborers must be experienced on account of the particular skill that is 
required and the fatigue that attends handling heavy poles sometimes 
30 feet long, with the face continually upturned. Wherever they can 
be reached, the pods are cut off with a machete. They are heaped in 
piles by one set of laborers, while another cuts them open and extracts 
the contents. A sharp pruning knife is used, and the seeds are often 
damaged through carelessness. For extracting the gummy substance 
and the seeds, an implement made of a beef rib is used. 
‘The drying is done on open platforms made of split bamboo and 
palms, where the cacao is exposed to the sun during three or four days, 
and, in order that it may dry uniformly and well, laborers are employed 
to tread it out with bare feet. If not well dried, the bean is apt to 
ferment, and if excessively dried it shrinks and, finally, turns black. 
The driers are provided with covers for protection against rain.”’ 
The different methods of fermentation are not described here. The 
prime object of the sweating or fermentation appears to be to change 
the inside portion of the bean by absorbing into it products obtained 
from the fermenting and decomposing pulp, and where this is not 
accomplished by any of the methods, the bean is classed as unfer- 
mented, and the product is of lower value. 
The seeds are brought into the market in their crude state, as 
almond-shaped ‘‘ beans,’’ which differ in color and somewhat in texture. 
It is not uncommon to find the external surface more or less covered 
with a thin, irregular layer of attached earth, but this is almost wholly 
rubbed off during transportation. Upon the color of shell and kernel, 
the relative brittleness, the flavor, and the odor depend the market 
value of the seeds. 
The dried seeds have a papery, brittle shell, which is very smooth 
on the inside, but which on the outside exhibits, under the microscope, 
a few short hairs and round excrescences. But these are mostly lost 
