The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom / Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.

by P. L. Simmonds

It is to be wished that stoves were employed to dry the cacao when the sun fails, but this expedient, so simple and important, is generally unknown.

It is almost universally believed that the most essential precautions for preserving the cacao consists in gathering it at the decline of the moon. I believe that they may more seriously calculate on the care of depositing it in apartments so hermetically closed that the air cannot penetrate; it would be advisable to make these apartments of wood, for the more perfect exclusion of moisture. The floor should be elevated two feet; under the floor a pan of coals is placed, covered with a funnel, the point of which enters into the heap of cacao and then diffuses the vapor. In the apartment which contains the cacao, some persons place bottles of vinegar, slightly stopped with paper, to prevent the formation of worms.

The beans which begin to show specks, may be preserved from entire corruption by a slight application of brine. This occasions a small degree of fermentation, which is sufficient to destroy the worms, and to preserve the cacao during a considerable time from new attacks. Why is not this preservative also employed after the cacao is dried, and when placed in the store, where it awaits the purchaser?

At St. Philip they make use of smoke to preserve the cacao; it is also ascertained that fine salt, thrown in small quantities on the cacao, protects it from worms.

Much has been done for the cacao when it has been cleared of all green or dead beans, and extraneous substances; when it has received no bruise or injury in the operation of drying, and when it has been subsequently kept in a place that is dry and not exposed to the air; yet, even with all these precautions, cacao of the best quality is seldom found marketable at the end of a year.

These circumstances sufficiently prove that the culture of cacao requires attention more than science, vigilance rather than genius, and assiduity in preference to theory. Choice of ground, distribution and draining of the waters, position of the trees destined to shade the cacao, are almost the only points which require more than common intelligence. Less expense is also required for an establishment of this kind than for any other of equal revenue. One able hand, as I have already said, is sufficient for the preservation and harvest of a thousand plants, each of which should yield at least one pound of cacao, in ground of moderate quality, and a pound and a half in the best soil. By an averaged calculation of twenty ounces to each plant, the thousand plants must produce twelve hundred and fifty pounds, which, at the ordinary price of 31s. 6d. per cwt., would produce about £17 10s. per annum for each laborer. The expenses of the plantation, including those of utensils, machines, and buildings, are also less considerable for cacao than for any other produce. The delay of the first crop, and the accidents peculiar to cacao, can alone diminish the number of planters attached to its culture, and induce a preference to other commodities.

The cacao plant is not in a state of prolific produce till the eighth year in the interior, and the ninth in plantations on the coast. Yet, by a singularity which situation alone can explain, the crops of cacao commence in the ninth year in the valley of Goapa, and at the east of the mouth of the Tuy. In the vicinity of the line, and on the banks of Rio-Negro, the plantations are in full produce on the fourth, or at most the fifth year.

The cacao tree continues productive to the age of fifty years on the coast, and thirty years in the interior of the country.

In general the culture and preparation of cacao receives more attention in the eastern parts of Venezuela than in other places, and even than in the French colonies. It is true that the suitability of the soil contributes much to the quality of the article; but without the assistance derived from art, it would be far from possessing that superiority awarded to it by commerce over the cacao of every other country.

Stevenson ("Travels in South America") speaks of another kind of cacao tree, called moracumba, which is larger than the ordinary species, and grows wild in the woods. The beans under the brown husk are composed of a white, solid matter, almost like a lump of hard tallow. The natives take a quantity of these, and pass a piece of slender cane through them, and roast them, when they have the delicate flavour of the cacao.