The Food of the Gods | Page 6

other varieties of cacao,
but none of them produce the famous food.
[5] The Cocos nucifera, or "nut-bearing coco."
[6] _Erythroxylon coca._
[7] Or, as otherwise written, cacava quahuitl.
[8] 10 George III., c. 10.
[9] To make cocoa in perfection, for three breakfast-cups: in a quart jug
(with rounded bottom and narrower neck by preference) mix 1½ dessert
spoonfuls (¾ oz.) of Cocoa Essence with equal bulk of powdered white
sugar, and stir to a thin paste with a little boiling water. Mix in an
enamelled saucepan one breakfast-cup of milk with two cups of water
(cups to be about ¾ full), and boil with care. When on the boil, pour
this over the contents of the jug, and whisk vigorously for a few
seconds (see illustration, p. 1). Serve to table without delay. To make a
richer drink, use equal parts of milk and water. To ensure the beverage
being served as hot as possible, it is desirable to warm the jug before
the cocoa is put into it. The effect of this method of preparation is to
impart to the cocoa a more mellow taste, and to produce a deep froth on

the surface, giving it a most appetizing appearance. The thorough
mixing to which the cocoa is subjected also materially lessens the
amount of sediment in the bottom of the cup.
[Illustration--Colour Plate: CACAO PODS]

II. ITS GROWTH AND CULTIVATION.

[Illustration--Drawing: CACAO HARVESTING.]
Cocoa is now grown in many parts of the tropics, reference to which is
made in another chapter. The conditions, however, do not greatly vary,
and there are probably many lands in the tropical belt where it is yet
unknown that possess soil well suited to its extended cultivation.
The cacao-tree grows wild in the forests of Central America, and
varieties have been found also in Jamaica and other West Indian islands,
and in South America. It does not thrive more than fifteen degrees
north or south of the equator, and even within these limits it is not very
successfully grown more than 600 feet above the sea-level; in many
districts where sugar formerly monopolized the plains, it was supposed
that cocoa needed an altitude of at least 200 feet, but experiments of
planting on the old sugar estates and other low-lying places are
generally successful where the soil is good, as in Trinidad, Cuba, and
British Guiana. It has been found that the expense saved in roads,
labour, and transit on the level has been very considerable in
comparison with that incurred on some of the hill estates.
In appearance the cacao-tree is not greatly unlike one of our own
orchard trees, and trained by the pruning knife it grows similar in shape
to a well-kept apple tree, no very low boughs being left, so that a man
on horseback can generally pass freely down the long glades. Left to
nature, it will in good soil reach a height of over twenty feet, and its
branches will extend for ten feet from the centre.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Ceylon: Nursery of Cacao
Seedlings in Baskets of plaited Palm Leaf.]
The best soil is that made by the decomposition of volcanic rock, so
that it is a common sight to find areas strewn with large boulders turned
into a cocoa plantation of great fertility; but the best trees of all lie
along the vegas which intersect the hills, where the soil is deep, and the
stream winding among the trees supplies natural irrigation. The tree

also grows well in loams and the richer marls, but will not thrive on
clay and other heavy soils.
The cacao is one of the tenderest of tropical growths, and will not
flourish in any exposed position, for which reason large shade belts are
left along exposed ridges and other parts of a hill estate, thus greatly
reducing the total area under cultivation, in comparison with an estate
of equal extent on the level plains, where no shade belts are necessary.
The beans are planted either "at stake,"--when three beans are put in
round each stake, the one thriving best after the first year being left to
mature,--or "from nursery," whence, after a few months' growth in
bamboo or palm-leaf baskets, they are transplanted into the clearing.
The preparation of the land is the first and greatest expense; trees have
to be felled, and bush cut down and spread over the land, so that the
sun can quickly render it combustible. When all is clear, the cacao is
put in among a "catch crop" of vegetables (the cassava, tania,
pigeon-pea, and others), and frequently bananas, though, as taking
more nutriment from the soil, they are sometimes objected to. But the
seedling cacao needs a shade, and as it is some years before it comes
into bearing, it is