Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/121

Rh COCO A 101 main branches and the trunk, a very marked peculiarity which gives the matured fruit the appearance of being artificially attached to the tree. Generally only a single fruit is matured from each cluster of flowers. When ripe the fruit or &quot; pod &quot; is elliptical-ovoid in form, from 7 to 10 inches in length, and from 3 to 44- inches in diameter. It has a hard, thick, leathery rind of a rich purplish yellow colour, externally rough and marked with ten very distinct longitudinal ribs or elevations. The interior of the fruit has five cells, in each of which is a row of from 5 to 10 seeds embedded in a soft delicately pink acid pulp. Each fruit thus contains from 20 to 40 or more seeds, which constitute ths raw cocoa or &quot;cocoa beans&quot; of commerce. Branch of Cocoa Tree, with Fruit in section. The tree appears to have been originally a native of Mexico ; but it can be cultivated in suitable situations within the 25th parallels of latitude. It, however, nourishes best within the 15th parallels, at elevations ranging from near the sea-level up to about 2000 feet in height. It is now cultivated in Mexico, Honduras, Guatenfala, Nicaragua, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, New Granada, Venezuela, Guiana, and most of the West Indian Islands. Its cultivation has also been attempted in other tropical regions of the globe ; but the industry has hitherto not been developed on any considerable scale away from the American continent and the West Indian Islands. For the successful cultivation of the cocoa tree a rich well-watered soil and a humid atmosphere, with freedom from cold winds and protection from violent storms, are necessary. As the young plants are extremely delicate and tender, they are reared in nursery grounds till they attain a height of from 15 to 18 inches, and after planting out they still require protection from the wind and sun, which is provided by growing &quot; provisions &quot; (food-yielding plants), and the coral-beau tree, Erythrina Corallodendron, among the young trees. The trees begin to bear in the fourth or fifth year, but they do not attain their full productive vigour till about their eighth year, and they ought to con tinue prolific for from thirty to forty years thereafter. As the trees carry buds, flowers, and fruit in all stages at the same time, ripe pods may be collected at any period of the year, but there are periodical harvests dependent on the suitability of the weather for collecting the fruit and curing the seeds. In Venezuela, where the famous Caracas cocoa is grown, the gathering takes place in June and December, these being the crop cf St John and the Christmas crop respectively. In gathering the workman is careful to cut down only fully ripened pods, which he adroitly accom plishes with a long pole armed with two prongs or a knife at its extremity. The pods are left in heaps on the ground for about twenty-four hours ; they are then cut open, and the seeds are taken out, and carried in baskets to the place where they undergo the operation of sweating or curing. There the acid juice which accompanies the seeds is first drained off, after which they are placed in a sweating box, in. which they are enclosed and allowed to ferment for some time, great care being taken to keep the temperature from rising too high. The fermenting process is, in some cases, effected by throwing the seeds into holes or trenches in the grouna, and covering them with earth or clay. The seeds in this process, which is called claying, are occasionally stirred to keep the fermentation from proceeding too violently. The .sweating is a process which requires the very greatest attention and experience, as on it to .a great extent depend the flavour of the seeds and their fitness for preservation. The operation varies in duration according to the state of the weather, but a period of about two days yields the best results. Thereafter the seeds are exposed to the sun for drying, and those of a fine quality should then assume a warm reddish tint, which characterizes beans of a superior quality. The cocoa tree was cultivated, and its produce held in the highest esteem, in Mexico and Peru previous to the discovery of the American continent by Columbus. Frescott, in his Conquest of Peru, says of the followers of Fizarro, that as they sailed along the Pacific coast they saw &quot; hill-sides covered with the yellow maize and the potato, or checkered in the lower levels with blooming plantations of cacao.&quot; The same writer, referring to the use of cocoa in Mexico, says of the Emperor Montezuma that &quot; he was exceedingly fond of it, to judga from the quantity, no less than 50 jars or pitchers being prepared for his own daily consumption ; 2000 more were allowed for that of his household.&quot; &quot;Traffic,&quot; he adds again, &quot; was carried on partly by barter and partly by means of a regulated currency of different values. This consisted of transparent quills of gold dust, of bits of tin cut in the form of a T, and bags of cacao containing a specified number of grains.&quot; A knowledge of this valuable article of food was first 1 rough t to Europe by Columbus, but some time elapsed ere ils virtues were appreciated in the Old World. Spain was the first nation in which its use became common ; and to this day cocoa is much more extensively consumed among the Spaniards than by any other European community. The earliest intimation of the introduction of cocoa into England is found in an announcement in the Public Advertiser of Tuesday, 16th June 1657, notifying that &quot; In Bishopgate Street, in Queen s Head Alley, at a Frenchman s house, is an excellent West India drink, called chocolate, to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time, and also unmade, at reasonable rates.&quot; About the beginning of the 18th century chocolate had become an exceedingly fashionable beverage, and the cocoa tree was a favourite sign and name for places of public refreshment. Cocoa and chocolate are frequently mentioned- in contem porary literature, and among others Pope, in his Rape of tlu Lock, alludes to it ; the negligent spirit, fixed liko Ixion- &quot;In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow, And tremble at the sea that froths below.&quot; The high price at which it was retailed kept chocolate among the luxuries of the wealthy ; and coffee, which had been introduced two or three years before chocolate, and tea, which came a year later, both soon far out-stripped their rival beverage in public estimation.