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328 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Sepr., 1901. 
(Venezuela), and always brings the highest price in the British markets. 
Considerable patience is required to grow it from the seedlings, as it takes five 
or six years of cultivation before there is a harvest worth mentioning, and seven 
or eight years before a full crop can be realised; but when the trees are once 
full-grown they will continue to bear fruit for an almost indefinite time. 
The cocoa tree seems to flourish best in the rich and well-watered_ soil 
along the banks of the many ravines that traverse the uplands of the island, 
where they are more or less protected from the violent storms. The small 
plants are reared in nursery grounds until they are 10 or 12 inches high, 
when they are planted in rows like a northern fruit orchard. The cocoa tree 
must always be protected from the powerful rays of the tropical sun that seem 
to blast the fruit. When young, they are shaded by growing bananas or 
plantains adjacent to the young tree: these grow very rapidly and furnish the 
required protection, as well as being the source of some profit while the cacao 
is too small to bear. 
Butit is necessary to provide for a future shade—for the cacao, after three 
or four years, outgrows the banana—and for this purpose a tree known as the 
“Bois Immortel” (sometimes called the “ Mother of the Cacao”) is planted at 
the same time as the cacao tree. This is a tall tree with high and spreading 
branches that form a sort of canopy over the entire cacao plantation and give it 
the required shade, making it resemble an open forest. The immortels are 
shown in the illustration immediately behind the dry-houses, with the smaller 
cacao trees underneath. The coffee tree, which is much smaller than the cacao, 
is often grown in small quantities amongst it. 
The cultivation consists largely of draining the land, keeping down the 
undergrowth of brush and weeds, and pruning the trees. The flowers occur in 
clusters on the main branches and on the trunks of the trees, usually only one 
of each cluster reaching maturity. The fruit, which is seen in the illustration, 
is a hard pod, 6 or 7 inches long, resembling a cucumber, growing from the 
trunk or large branches, and looks very much as though it had been 
artificially attached. Buds, blossoms, and fruit in all stages occur side by side, 
and ripened fruit is harvested at all times of the year. The main crop, however, 
matures in the dry season, and is usually harvested in February ; only small 
quantities ripening during the remainder of the year. 
The pods each contain five rows of seeds or beans, quite similar to a large 
Lima bean, embedded in a pinkacid pulp. These seeds are the cocoa beans of 
commerce. The harvesting consists of cutting off the mature peck by means of 
a knife on a long bamboo pole, gathering them into heaps on the ground, where 
they are allowed to lie for about twenty-four hours. ‘They are then cut open 
with a cutlass, the seeds and pulp coming out in a mass; these are carried to 
the dry-house, which consists of a smooth, tight floor or platform set on posts at 
a height 4 or 5 feet above the ground to allow a free circulation of air under- 
neath. A light iron T-rail is spiked on each side near the edge and extending 
one-half the length of the floor beyond each end; a corrugated iron roof, with 
its eaves level with the floor, covers the platform. ‘This is carried on a frame, 
divided in the middle of the floor, mounted on small car wheels travelling on 
the rails. The drying of the beans is accomplished on the floor by spreading 
them over it and exposing them to the sun. ‘The roofs are to protect them from 
the rain and dews, and are kept wheeled back on the extended tracks when the 
sun is shining. As soon as the beans reach the dry-house they are placed im 
the “ sweat-box” or pit, where they are closed up tight and allowed to ferment 
for some time. This process requires very careful attention to prevent the 
temperature from getting too high and to stop the fermentation at the proper 
time to ensure the proper flavour, as well as the fitness for the preservation of 
the beans. 
The next process is the drying on the floor. Labourers are kept 
constantly stirring them, while exposed to the sun, with a wooden rake, so that 
they will dry evenly. Hach morning, during the early stages of the drying 
process, the beans are gathered into a heap in the middle of the floor and given 
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