Here again come in the mysterious ways of the British Government. The cultivation of chicory was absolutely forbidden by the Inland Revenue Department; but a considerable amount is still grown in Belgium and is imported to this country. Those who prefer chicory with their coffee have to pay a heavy duty; but the Belgian farmer is allowed and the British farmer is forbidden to take up a paying and profitable industry! The plant is allied to the dandelion. It occasionally occurs in this country as a weed, and is a rather striking plant with bright blue flowers.
Another of these useful productions which also suffers from a heavy duty is Cocoa or Chocolate. There are a great many different plants called Co Co, or by some name very similar to it. The Cocoanut Palm furnishes not only the nuts but the fibre or coir enclosing them, as well as a great many other useful substances. The cocaine used by dentists, and which deadens or stupefies the nerves of the teeth, is derived from the leaves of a Peruvian shrub, "Coca" (Erythroxylan Coca). These leaves are chewed in the mouth and have very extraordinary effects, especially on the Indian labourers. They are a strong nerve stimulus and take away any feeling of hunger or fatigue. It was by the use of coca leaves that the postmen of the Inca emperors in Peru were enabled to carry messages at the rate of 150 miles a day. Then again the Cocoes of the West Indian Islands is a sort of Yam (Colocasia antiquorum). Coco-de-mer is the fruit of a palm common in the Seychelles Islands (Lodoicea Seychellarum).
The cocoa which gives the ordinary chocolate and cocoa of the breakfast table is the seed of a tree (Theobroma cacao). The name is derived from θεος, god, and βρωμα, food. It may be translated, "That which the gods browse upon."
This plant is one of those which were cultivated by that ancient, powerful, semi-civilized nation, the Aztecs of Mexico. They have almost entirely vanished; at any rate their descendants, if they have any, exercise practically no influence in the world, but they have left us chocolate. They fully appreciated the plant, and even more than we do, for they worshipped it with grateful and superstitious awe.
In their tombs, chocolate flavoured with vanilla was placed, in order to provide the ghost with sufficient sustenance for his or her aerial flight to the Land of the Sun. Columbus brought home some cocoa on his return from his first voyage. The Jesuit fathers in Mexico greatly helped in developing the plantation of cocoa in the days of the Spaniards. At present the largest amount comes from Ecuador, which produces about 50,000,000 pounds weight.
It is a small tree, twenty to thirty feet high, growing in the warm, moist, and sheltered forests of Central and South America. It has a large fruit, within which are the numerous cocoa beans, "nibs," or seeds. The tree does not bear until it is five years old. The fermentation and drying of the beans require some care.
Stereo Copyright, Underwood & UnderwoodLondon and New York
A Tobacco Plantation in Cuba