ITS NATURAL HISTORY. 21 



descending from the mountains, may be turned into these little chan- 

 nels and bear needful moisture to trees and soil. At the age of five 

 years the plantation begins to bear fruit, and annually yields two 

 crops, that ripening in June being termed the crop of San Juan, and 

 that maturing at Christmas being known as the crop of La Navidad. 

 The average age to which the trees attain, under proper care, may be 

 estimated at forty years, during which period it will give fair to full 

 crops of fruit ; but of course it must be understood that, as in our 

 fruit orchards, a new tree must be set from time to time to replace one 

 that may be decayed or blighted. After careful inquiry it may be 

 safely stated that the average crop of the cocoa plantation at ten 

 years of age, and under a proper state of cultivation, will amount to 

 five hundred or six hundred pounds per acre." 



The method of preparing the fruit for shipment is thus de- 

 scribed in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " : — 



" In gathering, the workman is careful to cut down only fully 

 ripened pods, which he adroitly accomplishes with a long pole armed 

 with two prongs, or a knife at its extremity. The pods are left in a 

 heap on the ground for about twenty-four hours ; they are then cut 

 open and the seeds are taken out and carried in baskets to the place 

 where they undergo the operation of sweating or curing. There the 

 acid juice which accompanies the seeds is first drained off, after which 

 they are placed in a sweating-box, in which they are enclosed and 

 allowed to ferment for some time, great care being taken to keep the 

 temperature from rising too high. The fermenting process is, in some 

 cases, affected by throwing the seeds into holes or trenches in the 

 ground, and covering them with earth or clay. The seeds in this pro- 

 cess, which is called " claying," are occasionally stirred to keep the fer- 

 mentation from proceeding too violently. The sweating is a process 

 which requires the very greatest attention and experience, as on it, 

 to a great extent, depends the flavor of the seeds and their fitness for 

 preservation. The operation varies according to the state of the 

 weather, but a period of about two days yields the best results. There- 

 after the seeds are exposed to the sun for drying, and those of a fine 



