Cacao Culture in the Philippines

by William Scrugham Lyon

Harvest.

The ripening period of cacao generally occurs at two seasons of the year, but in these islands the most abundant crop is obtained at about the commencement of the dry season, and the fruits continue to ripen for two months or longer. The time of its approaching maturity is easily recognized by the tyro by the unmistakable aroma of chocolate that pervades the orchard at that period, and by some of the pods turning reddish or yellow according to the variety.

The pods are attached by a very short stalk to the trunk of the tree, and those within reach of the hand are carefully cut with shears. Those higher up are most safely removed with an extension American tree pruner. A West Indian hook knife with a cutting edge above and below and mounted on a bamboo pole, if kept with the edges very sharp, does excellently well, but should only be intrusted to the most careful workmen. There is hardly a conceivable contingency to warrant the climbing of a cacao tree. If it should occur, the person climbing should go barefooted. As soon as the fruit, or so much of it as is well ripened, has been gathered, it is thrown into heaps and should be opened within twenty-four hours.

The opening is done in a variety of ways, but the practice followed in Surinam would be an excellent one here if experienced labor was not at command. There, with a heavy knife or cutlass (bolo), they cut off the base or stem end of the fruit and thereby expose the column to which the seeds are attached, and then women and children, who free most of the seeds, are able to draw out the entire seed mass intact. It is exceedingly important that the seeds are not wounded, and for that reason it is inexpedient to intrust the more expeditious method of halving the fruit with a sharp knife to any but experienced workmen.

The process of curing that I have seen followed in these Islands is simplicity itself. Two jars half filled with water are provided for the cleaners, and as the seeds are detached from the pulp they are sorted and graded on the spot. Only those of large, uniform size, well formed and thoroughly ripe, being thrown into one; deformed, small, and imperfectly matured seeds going to the other. In these jars the seeds are allowed to stand in their own juice for a day, then they are taken out, washed in fresh water, dried in the sun from two to four days, according to the weather, and the process from the Filipino standpoint is complete.

Much of the product thus obtained is singularly free from bitterness and of such excellent quality; as to be saleable at unusually high prices, and at the same time in such good demand that it is with some hesitancy that the process of fermentation is recommended for general use.

But it is also equally certain that localities in these Islands will be planted to cacao where all the conditions that help to turn out an unrivaled natural product are by no means assured. For such places, where the rank-growing, more coarse-flavored, and bitter-fruited Forastero may produce exceptionally good crops, it will become incumbent on the planter to adopt some of the many methods of fermentation, whereby he can correct the crudeness of the untreated bean and receive a remunerative price for the “processed” or ameliorated product.

Undoubtedly the Strickland method, or some modification of it, is the best, and is now in general use on all considerable estates where the harvest is 200 piculs or upward per annum, and its use probably assures a more uniform product than any of the ruder processes in common use by small proprietors.

But it must not be forgotten that the present planters in the Philippines are all small proprietors, and that until such time as the maturing of large plantations calls for the more elaborate apparatus of the Strickland pattern, some practice whereby the inferior crude bean may be economically and quickly converted into a marketable product can not be avoided. As simple and efficacious as any is that largely pursued in some parts of Venezuela, where is produced the famous Caracas cacao.

The beans and pulp are thrown into wooden vats that are pierced with holes sufficient to permit of the escape of the juice, for which twenty-four hours suffices. The vat is then exposed to the sun for five or six hours, and the beans, while still hot, are taken out, thrown into large heaps, and covered with blankets.