Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

76 THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY the Amelonado variety of Forastero, as grown on the Gold Coast, lacks any special character, but the tree has the advantage of being hardy and capable of yielding heavy crops, as much as 5 Ibs. a tree, given sound cultivation. The cacao of the Gold Coast had, at one time, as bad a name for quality as the climate had for unhealthiness. Neither cacao nor climate deserves this to-day. It would be unreasonable to expect that in a single generation the natives should leam and practise the whole art of cacao production. With the encouragement and help of the Agricultural Department great improvements have been made. Fermenting and drying now receive considerable attention, and the practice of fermenting for six days in heaps, baskets, or “ odum ” boxes continues to increase. Not only have there been improvements in the prepara-tion of the beans, but more recently there have been signs that care is being taken in the cultivation of the tree. Knives are now generally used for harvesting the pods, and attempts are made in some places to keep the plantations clean. Some of the intelligent natives see the folly of crowded seed beds and crowded plantations, and realise that the planting of trees 6 ft. to 10 ft. apart, as in the past, was an error. People sometimes talk as though the whole output of the Gold Coast was very inferior stuff; this is absurd. Although the care in preparation leaves much to be desired, there are probably at least 50,000 tons of good, sound, fermented cacao produced every year. This is more than any other country can boast of. Even if we take the bulk, it is far better fermented than the cacao of Para, or, amazing as it sounds, than the cacao of Ecuador. It is partly on account of its lack of uniformity, and its mixed and uncertain character, that the cacao