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Page 11
This is known as "sweating." Day by day the pulp becomes darker, as
fermentation sets in, and the temperature is raised to about 140� F.
During fermentation a dark sour liquid runs away from the sweat-boxes,
which is, in fact, a very dilute acetic acid, but of no commercial
value. During the process of "sweating" the cotyledons of the
cocoa-bean, which are at first a purple colour and very compact in the
skin, lose their brightness for a duller brown, and expand the skin,
giving the bean a fuller shape. When dry, a properly cured bean should
crush between the finger and thumb.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Cacao Drying in the Sun, Maracas,
Trinidad.]
Finally the beans are turned on to a tray to dry in the sun. They are
still sticky, but of a brown, mahogany colour. Among them are pieces
of fibre and other "trash," as well as small, undersized beans, or
"balloons," as the nearly empty shell of an unformed bean is called.
While a man shovels the beans into a heap, a group of women, with
skirts kilted high, tread round the sides of the heap, separating the
beans that still hold together. Then the beans are passed on to be
spread in layers on trays in the full heat of the tropical sun, the
temperature being upwards of 140� F.[11] When thus spread, the women
can readily pick out the foreign matter and undersized beans. Two or
three days will suffice to dry them, after which they are put in bags
for the markets of the world, and will keep with but very slight loss
of weight or aroma for a year or more.
Between crops the labourers are employed in "cutlassing," pruning,
and cleaning the land and trees. Nearly all the work is in pleasant
shade, and none of it harder than the duties of a market gardener in
our own country; indeed, the work is less exacting, for daylight lasts
at most but thirteen hours, limiting the time that a man can see in
the forest: ten hours per day, with rests for meals, is the average
time spent on the estate. Wages are paid once a month, and a whole
holiday follows pay-day, when the stores in town are visited for
needful supplies. Other holidays are not infrequent, and between crops
the slacker days give ample time for the cultivation of private
gardens.
Labourers from India are largely imported by the Government under
contract with the planters, and the strictest regulations are observed
in the matter of housing, medical aid, etc. At the expiration of the
term of contract (about six years) a free pass is granted to return to
India, if desired. Many, however, prefer to remain in their adopted
home, and become planters themselves, or continue to labour on the
smaller estates, which are generally worked by free labour, as the
preparations for contracted labour are expensive, and can only be
undertaken on a large scale.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Labourer's Cottage, Cacao Estate,
Trinidad. (Bread Fruit and Bananas.)]
The natives of India work on very friendly terms with the coloured
people of the islands, the descendants of the old African slaves, and
the cocoa estate provides a healthy life for all, with a home amid
surroundings of the most congenial kind.[12]
[Illustration--Drawing: BASKETS OF CACAO ON PLANTAIN LEAVES.]
In other cocoa-growing countries processes vary somewhat. On the
larger estates artificial drying is slowly superseding the natural
method, for though the sun at its best is all that is needed, a
showery day will seriously interfere with the process, even though the
sliding roof is promptly pulled across to keep the rain from the
trays.
In Venezuela an old Spanish custom still prevails of sprinkling a fine
red earth over the beans in the process of drying; this plan has
little to recommend it, unless it be for the purpose of long storage
in warehouses in the tropics, when the "claying" may protect the bean
from mildew and preserve the aroma. In Ceylon it is usual to
thoroughly wash the beans after the process of fermentation, thus
removing all remains of the pulp, and rendering the shell more tender
and brittle. Such beans arrive on the market in a more or less broken
state, and it seems probable that they are more subject to
contamination owing to the thinness of the shell. The best "estate"
cocoa from Ceylon has a very bright, clear appearance, and commands a
high price on the London market; this cocoa is of the pure _criollo_
strain, light brown (pale burnt sienna) in colour.
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