Cocoa and Chocolate | Page 8

home of cacao was the rich tropical
region, far-famed in Elizabethan days, that lies between the Amazon
and the Orinoco, and but for the enterprise of man it is doubtful if it
would have ever spread from this region. Monkeys often carry the
beans many miles--man, the master-monkey, has carried them round
the world. First the Indians spread cacao over the tropical belt of the
American continent and cultivated it as far North as Mexico. Then
came the Spanish explorers of the New World, who carried it from the
mainland to the adjacent West Indian islands. Cacao was planted by

them in Trinidad as early as 1525. Since that date it has been
successfully introduced into many a tropical island. It was an important
day in the history of Ceylon when Sir R. Horton, in 1834, had cacao
plants brought to that island from Trinidad. The carefully packed plants
survived the ordeal of a voyage of ten thousand miles. The most recent
introduction is, however, the most striking. About 1880 a native of the
Gold Coast obtained some beans, probably from Fernando Po. In 1891,
the first bag of cacao was exported; it weighed 80 pounds. In 1915, 24
years later, the export from the Gold Coast was 120 million pounds.
[Illustration: CACAO TREE, WITH PODS AND LEAVES]

The Cacao Tree.
Tropical vegetation appears so bizarre to the visitor from temperate
climes that in such surroundings the cacao tree seems almost
commonplace. It is in appearance as moderate and unpretentious as an
apple tree, though somewhat taller, being, when full grown, about
twenty feet high. It begins to bear in its fourth or fifth year. Smooth in
its early youth, as it gets older it becomes covered with little bosses
(cushions) from which many flowers spring. I saw one fellow, very tall
and gnarled, and with many pods on it; turning to the planter I enquired
"How old is that tree?" He replied, almost reverentially: "It's a good
deal older than I am; must be at least fifty years old." "It's one of the
tallest cacao trees I've seen. I wonder--." The planter perceived my
thought, and said: "I'll have it measured for you." It was forty feet high.
That was a tall one; usually they are not more than half that height. The
bark is reddish-grey, and may be partly hidden by brown, grey and
green patches of lichen. The bark is both beautiful and quaint, but in
the main the tree owes its beauty to its luxuriance of prosperous leaves,
and its quaintness to its pods.
[Illustration: CACAO TREE, SHOWING PODS GROWING FROM
TRUNK.]
[Illustration: FLOWERS AND FRUITS ON MAIN BRANCHES OF A

CACAO TREE. (Reproduced from van Hall's Cocoa, by permission of
Messrs. Macmillan & Co.).]

The Flowers, Leaves and Fruit.
Although cacao trees are not unlike the fruit trees of England, there are
differences which, when first one sees them, cause expressions of
surprise and pleasure to leap to the lips. One sees what one never saw
before, the fruit springing from the main trunk, quite close to the
ground. An old writer has explained that this is due to a wise
providence, because the pod is so heavy that if it hung from the end of
the branches it would fall off before it reached maturity. The old writer
talks of providence; a modern writer would see in the same facts a
simple example of evolution. On the same cacao tree every day of the
year may be found flowers, young podkins and mature pods side by
side. I say "found" advisedly--at the first glance one does not see the
flowers because they are so dainty and so small. The buds are the size
of rice grains, and the flowers are not more than half an inch across
when the petals are fully out. The flowers are pink or yellow, of
wax-like appearance, and have no odour. They were commonly stated
to be pollinated by thrips and other insects. Dr. von Faber of Java has
recently shown that whilst self-pollination is the rule, cross fertilisation
occurs between the flowers on adjacent or interlocking trees. These
graceful flowers are so small that one can walk through a plantation
without observing them, although an average tree will produce six
thousand blossoms in a year. Not more than one per cent. of these will
become fruit. Usually it takes six months for the bud to develop into the
mature fruit. The lovely mosses that grow on the stems and branches
are sometimes so thick that they have to be destroyed, or the fragile
cacao flower could not push its way through. Whilst the flowers are
small, the leaves are large, being as an average about a foot in length
and four inches in breadth. The cacao tree never