Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

il i i '•'r? ?3 ■3 I *-•? £# fe 6 THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY deficient, and dying back was inevitable.” Nevertheless, considering how vital this question of yield is to the whole industry, the writer continues to hope that experi-ments in fertilisation will be made. One does not expect to get 10,000 pods on a tree, but an average of 80 pods would delight the planter, and this number may reasonably be hoped for. Flowers, small fruit, resembling gherkins, and mature fruit are to be seen growing side by side on the same tree, practically all the year round. In many places the flowers are most numerous in June, and, as the time taken from the opening of the flower to the production of the mature fruit is about five or six months, the greatest quantity of ripe fruit is gathered in November and December, when people in England are shivering by their fires. The mature fruit is a pod about 6 ins. to 8 ins. long, and weighs from 10 ozs. to 20 ozs. The shape and size vary according to the botanic species and variety. The colours of the pods are remarkable for their rich-ness. When unripe they may be as green as grass, and when mature golden-yellow, or maroon, or crimson tinged with purpie. Since it was christened by the great Swedish scientist, Linnæus, the tree has been known to botanists as Theobroma cacao (Greek, theos, a god ; broma, food). Lovers of cocoa and chocolate will consider it poetic justice that this tree should be called the “ food of the gods.” Botanically it is classified thus; FAMILY: Sterculiaceae. GENUS: Theobroma. SPECIES: Theobroma cacao, Theobroma pentagona, Theobroma sphaerocarpa. The family of the Sterculiaceae is related to the mallows and the linden tree. There are only two important genera: the cacao tree and the kola-nut tree, the fruits of which very much resemble one another externally. There are,