is not to be met with further south than this. The part of Florida
which borders the Gulf of Mexico and the southern part of Louisiana
mark the northerly limit of its natural growth.[20] A traveller in
Louisiana in 1796 speaks of the cacao-tree among others as "covering
with delightful shade the shores of the Mississippi," and on the banks
of the Alatamaha in Georgia, but it is not cultivated so far north.
At the present day the West India Islands rival the South American
Continent in providing cocoa from the New World. Trinidad has for more
than a century deservedly claimed to be the first of these
cocoa-producing islands. As far back as the sixteenth century the
Spaniards who first colonized the island were interested in the
cultivation of cacao. In the year 1780 a French gentleman residing in
the neighbouring island of Grenada visited Trinidad, and gave such a
glowing account of its fertility that agriculturists from France
and elsewhere flocked to the colony, and ever since this date it has
maintained a high standard of agricultural advance. The names of the
cacao estates at the present day are nearly all Spanish or French, and
throughout the British occupation of more than a hundred years the old
families have in many cases held the same lands.[21]
[Illustration--Colour Plate: MAP OF TRINIDAD.]
The oldest estates in the island lie in the northern valleys of Santz
Cruz, Maracas, and Arima; but cultivation has been considerably
extended in the Montserrat and Naparima districts, and more recently
in almost every part of the island reached by the extension of the
railway and the coasting steamboat. The Trinidad bean is the largest
and finest flavoured, and commands a higher price on the market than
any other from the West Indies.
[Illustration--Drawing: MAP OF GRENADA, BRITISH WEST INDIES.]
Next in importance to Trinidad is the little island of Grenada; here
cacao is the staple industry, the sugar estates that once lined the
shores having entirely disappeared. Grenada cacao is smaller than that
of Trinidad, possibly on account of the different method of planting
described in a previous chapter, but the flavour of the bean is
exceedingly good and regular, and the crop is bought up eagerly on the
British and American markets. The other West Indian islands producing
cocoa are Jamaica and Dominica, where its cultivation is reviving;
also St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, and Montserrat, each of which
have a few plantations; those in St. Vincent suffered severely by the
recent hurricane. The French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique
supply exclusively to the port of Havre; the cocoa from San Domingo is
of a somewhat inferior quality. Cuba will probably considerably extend
its output under American rule.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: A Hill Cacao Estate, Grenada, B.W.I.]
[Illustration--Drawing: MAP OF PRINCIPE.]
In the Eastern Hemisphere by far the largest supplies come from the
small islands of St. Thomé and Principe, in the Gulf of Guinea,
belonging to the Portuguese. These have in recent years proved
especially adapted for the growth of the cacao, and the exports,
especially from the island of St. Thomé, are very large; most of the
crop finds its way to European markets, transhipping at Lisbon. There
is little cacao grown in the mainland African colonies, though the
German Government offers special inducements in the Kameruns; no
British African colony grows it to any extent. Fernando Po sends
supplies to Spain, and occasionally on the London market strange
packages made of rough cowhide stitched with leather thongs are seen,
containing beans from Madagascar.
[Illustration--Drawing: MAP OF S. THOMÉ.]
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Ceylon: Carting Cacao to Rail.]
[Illustration--Drawing: MAP OF CEYLON.]
Further east are the plantations of Ceylon. In the hill districts, of
which Matale is the centre, are many estates, some in joint
cultivation of tea and cocoa. The output from this colony is at the
present time nearly stationary. The Dutch East Indian produce is
almost exclusively shipped to Amsterdam.
[Illustration--Drawing: MAP OF SAMOA.]
In the preceding pages extracts have frequently been culled from
writers of the past: in the literature of the present day Charles
Kingsley's graphic account of Trinidad and its cacao and sugar
plantations in "At Last" should be read _in extenso_. Another very
interesting episode of modern date is the introduction of the cacao
into the Samoan Islands in the Pacific by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Writing to Sidney Colvin, on December 7, 1891, in one of his "Vailima
Letters," he says:
"When I was filling baskets all Saturday, in my dull, mulish
way, perhaps the slowest worker there, surely the most
particular, and the only one that never looked up or knocked
off, I could not but think I should have been sent on
exhibition as an example to young literary men. 'Here is how to
learn to write' might be the motto. You should have seen us;
the veranda was like an Irish bog, our hands and faces were
bedaubed with soil, and Faauma was supposed to have struck the
right note when she remarked (_à propos_ of nothing), 'Too much
_eleele_ (soil) for me.' The cacao, you must understand, has to
be planted at first in baskets of plaited cocoa-leaf.[22] From
four to ten natives were plaiting these in the wood-shed. Four
boys were digging up soil and bringing it by the boxful to the
veranda. Lloyd and I and Belle, and sometimes S. (who came to
bear a hand), were filling the baskets, removing stones and
lumps of clay; Austin and Faauma carried them when full to
Fanny, who planted a seed in each, and then set them, packed
close, in the corners of the veranda. From 12 on Friday till 5
p.m. on Saturday we planted the first 1,500, and more than 700
of a second lot. You cannot dream how filthy we were, and we
were all properly tired."[23]
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Samoa: A New Clearing for Cacao.]
Three years later he records:
"I have been forbidden to work, and have been instead doing
my two or three hours in the plantation every morning. I only
wish somebody would pay me £10 a day for taking care of cacao,
and I could leave literature to others."
Cacao cultivation in this island of Upolu has since that date
developed wonderfully, and is attracting much attention, the first
produce having been sold in Hamburg at a very high price. The consular
report on Samoa published in February, 1903, states that "the mainstay
of Samoa is cocoa," and it will be interesting to follow the progress
of an industry of which the versatile Scotchman was an early pioneer.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] Florida even boasts a town of the name of Cocoa, but inquiries on
the spot have failed to discover that any attempt was ever made to
cultivate the plant there.
[21] Two of the coloured plates in this volume are reproductions of
pictures by members of one of the oldest French families in the
island, painted on their cocoa estate in the beautiful valley of Santa
Cruz.
[22] Leaf of the coco-nut palm.
[23] See plates facing pp. 27 and 29.
APPENDIX I.
ANCIENT MANUFACTURE OF COCOA.
Most of the operations described are only the performance on a large
scale by modern machinery of those employed by the Mexicans, and by
those who learned from them, of whom we read:
"For this purpose they have a broad, smooth stone, well
polished or glazed very hard, and being made fit in all
respects for their use, they grind the cacaos thereon very
small, and when they have so done, they have another broad
stone ready, under which they keep a gentle fire.
"A more speedy way for the making up of the cacao into
chocolate is this: They have a mill made in the form of some
kind of malt-mills, whose stones are firm and hard, which work
by turning, and upon this mill are ground the cacaos grossly,
and then between other stones they work that which is ground
yet smaller, or else by beating it up in a mortar bring it into
the usual form."
A later writer remarks of this process:
"The Indians, from whom we borrow it, are not very nice in
doing it; they roast the kernels in earthen pots, then free
them from their skins, and afterwards crush and grind them
between two stones, and so form cakes of it with their hands."
[Illustration--Drawing: A MEXICAN METATE, OR GRINDING STONE.]
And, further on, in speaking of the Spaniards' mode of preparation, he
says:
"They put them (the kernels) into a large mortar to reduce them
to a gross powder, which they afterwards grind upon a stone.
They make choice of a stone which naturally resists the fire,
from sixteen to eighteen inches broad, and about twenty-seven
or thirty long and three in thickness, and hollowed in the
middle about one inch and a half deep. Under this they place a
pan of coals to heat the stone, so that the heat makes it easy
for the iron roller to make it so fine as to leave neither lump
nor the least hardness."
At the present day, when the beans are plentiful on the cacao estates,
but no machines for manufacture exist, the planters prepare a
palatable drink by roasting the beans on a moving shovel or pan over
the open fire, husking them by the time-honoured plan of tossing in
the breeze, and grinding out on a flat stone in much the same manner
as did the old Spaniards. The writer has even seen a little
tobacco-press ingeniously adapted for the purpose of extracting the
butter, the invention of Mr. J.H. Hart, of the Trinidad Botanical
Gardens, a gentleman who has done much in the direction of
investigating the best cacao for seed, and the most favourable methods
of cultivation.
APPENDIX II.
BOURNVILLE WORKS SUGGESTION SCHEME.
OBJECTS.
_December, 1902._
The objects in view are:
1. To encourage our employés to make all the suggestions they can for
the mutual welfare of the business and everyone connected with it.
Even the smallest suggestion may be of value.
2. To enable those in our employ to share in the benefit of the
suggestions they make, and to receive personal recognition for them.
3. To insure harmonious relations between all sections of the work.
PRIZES.
Prizes of the undermentioned values will be given half-yearly for
suggestions meriting reward:
MEN'S DEPARTMENTS.--One of £10; two of £5; two of £2 10s.; ten of £1;
fifteen of 10s.; thirty of 5s. GIRLS' DEPARTMENTS.--One of £5; two of
£2; eight of £1; fifteen of 10s.; thirty of 5s.
The following list will indicate on what lines suggestions may be
made:
1. Comfort, safety, or health of employés.
2. Means by which waste of material may be avoided.
3. Saving of time or expense.
4. Improvements in machinery or in methods of working.
5. Introduction of new goods, or new ideas.
6. Calling attention to any existing defects.
7. Suggestions affecting athletic and other clubs and societies,
libraries, magazine, etc.
8. Any suggestion not included in the above list will be welcomed.
REGULATIONS.
Everyone, including foremen and forewomen, is encouraged to make
suggestions which, if of value, will be eligible for the prizes
mentioned above (excepting those sent in by foremen and forewomen).
Suggestions should be written on or attached to the forms which will
be found on each box, the boxes being fixed in the various
departments, also in the entrance lodges, dining-rooms, and recreation
grounds. Suggestions can be placed in any of these.
It is imperative that all particulars at head of form, which will
bear a distinctive number, should be carefully filled in. If this is
not complied with no notice will be taken of suggestions. Forms may be
taken from the book and filled up at home.
All suggestions will be acknowledged by a notice posted on the boards
once a week, giving a list of the printed numbers on the suggestion
forms received for consideration.
Should any number not appear in this list a communication should at
once be sent to the Secretary.
Those who have left the employ of the firm are entitled to prizes for
any suggestions made whilst they were here, unless they should leave
through misconduct.
The suggestions are considered weekly by the committees with a member
of the firm, and are dealt with in the order in which they are
received. They are finally judged by the firm at the end of May and
November, and prizes distributed before the summer holidays and at the
Christmas gathering.
Every effort is made by the committees to keep the names of the
suggestors _strictly private_.
APPENDIX III.
THE EARLY COCOA HOUSES.
At No. 64, St. James's Street is the "Cocoa Tree Club." In the reign
of Queen Anne there was a famous chocolate-house known as the "Cocoa
Tree," a favourite sign to mark that new and fashionable beverage. Its
frequenters were Tories of the strictest school. De Foe tells us in
his "Journey through England," that "a Whig will no more go to the
'Cocoa Tree' ... than a Tory will be seen at the coffee-house of St.
James's." In course of time the "Cocoa Tree" developed into a
gaming-house and a club.
As a club, the "Cocoa Tree" did not cease to keep up its reputation
for high play. Although the present establishment bearing the name
dates its existence only from the year 1853, the old chocolate-house
was probably converted into a club as far back as the middle of the
last century. Lord Byron was a member of this club, and so was Gibbon,
the historian.
--From "Old and New London," Cassell & Co.
NOTE.
Reference in detail to the numerous authorities who have been laid
under contribution for this brochure would be out of place in so
popular a compilation, but the writer desires to express his special
indebtedness to "Cocoa: All about It" by "Historicas," not only for
facts, but also for some of his illustrations. To Messrs. Cadbury,
too, he is indebted for permission to use several of the
illustrations, as well as for much valuable information.