Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

CHAPTER IV THE RAW MATERIAL—CULTIVATION OF THE CACAO BEAN In this chapter it is proposed to deal with the cultivation of cacao as practised to-day. The word cultivation conveys the idea of careful tilling of the soil, the applica-tion of manures, and generally the attention to all the details that keep the plant healthy and increase the yield. In this sense the word cannot be fairly used in relation to much of the cacao produced in the worid. There are many cacao planters but few cacao cultiva-tors. Roughly, one may say that cacao receives the same amount of cultivation, and the same varying degrees of attention, as the trees in our English orchards. Mr. Barrett once said to the planters of Trinidad, “ Gentlemen, you have not cultivated cacao, you have only picked it.” This pungent remark was doubtless intended to sting the Trinidad planters into greater activity ; it would have been literally true if spoken to many thousands of cacao producers in other parts of the tropics. Yet in all countries a little care is taken, and such things as are traditionally considered beneficial are either done or intended to be done. Agriculture is the growth of centuries and the ways of men change slowly. In some parts of tropical America the way of cultivating cacao has been the same for several hundred years. Gradually, in each country, a method of cultivation and preparation for the market has been evolved suitable to the environment. Each method has distinctive features. As it will not be possible in the Space at our disposal to describe all these methods, 32