Page:The food of the Gods - A Popular Account of Cocoa.djvu/92

 Rh grown cocoa for upwards of a hundred years, but up to the present time very little in the way of manuring has been done beyond the natural vegetable deposits of the forest. In many estates of recent years cattle have been quartered in temporary pens on the hills, moving on month by month, with a large central pen for the stock down on the savanna.

The cocoa-beans are shipped to Europe in bags containing from one to one and a half hundredweight, and are disposed of by the London brokers nearly every Tuesday in the year at a special sale in the Commercial Sale Room in Mincing Lane.

The cacao-tree has sometimes been grown from seed in hot-houses in this country, but always with difficulty, for not only must a mean temperature of at least 80° F. be maintained, but the tree must be shielded from all draught. Among the most successful are the trees grown by Mr. James Epps, Jun., of Norwood, by whose kind permission the accompanying sketches from life were made. Success has only crowned his efforts after many years