20 



CACAO OR COCOA. 



cultivator has a sufficient number of persons employed to expose 

 a greater quantity. Tiiis operation is indispensable, to prevent it 

 from becoming mouldy. If the rains prevent this exposure to the 

 sun, it is necessary, as soon as it is sufficiently cleaned or purified, 

 to spread it in apartments, galleries, or halls, with which the plan- 

 tation must be provided ; this operation cannot be delayed with- 

 out danger of losing the crop. 



It is to be Avished that stoves were employed to dry the cacao 

 when the sun fails, but this expedient, so simple and important, 

 is generally unknown. 



It is almost universally believed that the most essential precau- 

 tions for preserving the cacao consists in gathering it at the de- 

 cline of the moon. I believe that they may more seriously calcu- 

 late on the care of depositing it in apartments so hermetically 

 closed that the air cannot penetrate ; it would be advisable to 

 make these apartments of w^ood, for the more perfect exclusion of 

 moisture. The floor should be elevated two feet ; under the floor 

 a pan of coals is placed, covered with a funnel, the point of which 

 enters into the heap of cacao and then diftuses the vapor. In 

 the apartment which contains the cacao, some persons place bot- 

 tles of vinegar, slightly stopped wdth paper, to prevent the forma- 

 tion of worms. 



The beans which begin to show specks, may be preserved from 

 entire corruption by a slight application of brine. This occasions 

 a small degree of fermentation, which is suiHcient to destroy the 

 worms, and to preserve the cacao during a considerable time from 

 new attacks. TVhy is not this preservative also employed after 

 the cacao is dried, and when placed in the store, where it awaits 

 the purchaser ? 



At St. Philip they make use of smoke to preserve the cacao ; it 

 is also ascertained that fine salt, thrown in small quantities on 

 the cacao, protects it from worms. 



Much has been done for the cacao when it has been cleared 

 of all green or dead beans, and extraneous substances ; when it 

 has received no bruise or injury in the operation of drying, and 

 Avhen it has been subsequently kept in a place that is dry and not 

 exposed to the air ; yet, even with all these precautions, cacao of 

 the best quality is seldom found marketable at the end of a year. 



These circumstances sufiiciently prove that the culture of cacao 

 requires attention more than science, vigilance rather than genius, 

 and assiduity in preference to theory. Choice of ground, distri- 

 bution and draining of the waters, position of the trees destined 

 to shade the cacao, are almost the only points which require more 

 than common intelligence. Less expense is also required for an 

 establishment of this kind than for any other of equal revenue. 

 One able hand, as I have already said, is sufiicient for the preser- 

 vation and harvest of a thousand plants, each of which should 

 yield at least one pound of cacao, in ground of moderate quality, 

 and a poimd and a half in the best soil. By an averaged calcu- 

 lation of tvventy ounces to each plant, the thousand plants must 



