Page:The food of the Gods - A Popular Account of Cocoa.djvu/69

32 per acre, in others, twice as much. The trees bear nearly all the year round, but only two harvests are gathered, the most abundant from November to January, known as the "Christmas crop," and a smaller picking about June, known as the "St. Johns crop." The trees throw off their old leaves about the time of picking, or soon after; should the leaves change at any other time, the young flower and fruit will also probably wither.

Of the many varieties of the cacao, the best known are the criollo, forastero, and calabacilla. The criollo ("native") fruit is of average size, characterized by a "pinched" neck and a curving point. This is the best kind, though not the most productive; it is largely planted in Venezuela, Columbia and Ceylon, and produces a bean light in colour and delicate in flavour. The forastero ("foreign") pod is long and regular in shape, deeply furrowed, and generally of a rough surface. The calabacilla ("little calabash") is smooth and round, like the fruit after which it is named. All varieties are seen in bearing with red, yellow, purple, and sometimes green