By Ervin E. Ewell.

The raw material from which the cocoas and chocolates of commerce are manufactured is the "cocoa bean," the seed of the cocoa, or cacao, tree (Theobroma cacao). While this tree has been successfully introduced into various warm countries, tropical America, its native land, still furnishes the larger and more highly valued portion of the world's supply of cocoa. From Mexico to Peru on the west coast, Mexico to Bahia, Brazil, on the east coast, and on the West India Islands, the most favorable conditions for its cultivation are met.

The tree, 6 to 12 meters in height, blooms continuously and yields two crops a year. The lemon yellow, fleshy fruit, 10 to 15 centimeters long, 5 to 7 centimeters in diameter, resembles in general appearance a cucumber, constricted at the upper end, tapered to a point at the lower end, and having ten longitudinal ridges. Twenty-five to forty, sometimes more, seeds are arranged in the fleshy pulp in five longitudinal rows. When first removed the seeds are colorless, fleshy, and covered with mucilage. On drying, with exposure to air and light, they become golden yellow to red or brown in color, and hard and brittle. They are egg-shaped, somewhat compressed, 1.2 to 2 centimeters long, and 0.6 to 1 centimeter broad.

1 For more detailed information concerning cultivation, preparation for market, manufacture, etc., of cocoa, see the following works: Cultivation, harvesting, etc.: An anonymous article on the cultivation of the cocoa tree in Colombia, Phar. Jour. Trans., [3] 970, 591; Boussiugault, Compt. Rend., 96, 1395; Jour. Chem. Soc, 1883, 44, 933; Boussingault, Ann. Chim. Phys., [5] 28, 433; Jour. Chem. Soc, 1884, 46, 202; Chem. Ztg., 1883, 203 and 902; Holm, American Chem., 5, 320; Jahresb. d. Chem., 1875, 1121; Smith, Dictionary of Economic Plants. Manufacture: Bernhardt, Chem. Ztg., 1889, 32; Saldau, Die Chokolade Fabrikation, 1881; Tresca, Lea Mondes, July 22, 1869. General description of tree, cultivation, harvesting, manufacture, etc.: Blyth, Foods: their Composition and Analysis; Hassall, Food: its Adulteration and the Methods for their Detection; Konig, Die mensclichen Nahrungs-und Genussmittel, ihre Herstellung, Zusammeusetzung und Beschaffenheit, ihre Verfal-schungen und deren Nachweisung; Mace, Les substances alimentaires etudiees au microscope; Moeller, Mikroskopie der Nahrungs und Genussmittel aus dem Pflanzen-reiche; Schaedler, Die Technologie der Fette und Oele des Pflanzen- und Thierreichs.

After removal from the fruit two processes are used for the preparation of the seeds for market. For the production of "unfermented cocoa," they are freed from adhering fruit pulp and at once dried in the sun. For the production of "fermented cocoa," the beans are placed in piles in sheds or are buried in trenches and allowed to ferment for a time before being completely dried in the sun. When buried the beans are now placed in casks or other coverings; hence, the earthy coating is no longer a mark for determining the process of preparation. Much of the acridity and bitterness disappears in this process of fermentation; the beans so prepared have a mildly oleaginous, pleasant, slightly bitter taste, and are more or less aromatic. The value of the product therefore greatly depends upon the care bestowed upon this operation.

Bernhardtl has made a careful study of the losses occurring in the preliminary processes of manufacture. He notes four main operations:

(1) The sifting of the raw cocoa to remove sand, dust, small stones, etc.

(2) The separation by hand of the larger stones, empty beans, grass, wood, etc.

(3) The roasting.

(4) The breaking up and cleaning to remove the husks.

He gives the results of thirty determinations, made in actual factory work, of the losses in each of these processes. The means, maxima, and minima of these determinations will be found in the table given below. In this table the term "beans" is used to denote both the good broken pieces and the small particles, which, of less value and constituting 9 to 15 per cent of the whole bean, are used for the preparation of cheaper chocolates.

Losses in preliminary preparation for manufacture.

The following table, from the Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Treasury Department for 1890, is given to show something of the commercial importance of this commodity and the extent of the use of its preparation in the United States.

1 Chem. Ztg., 1889, 32.

Importation of cocoa or cacao, crude, and the leaves and shells of, for the year ending June 30, 1890

During the same period, 634,551 pounds of chocolate, valued at $140,476, and 993,402 poundsof manufactured or prepared cocoa, valued at $400,385, were imported.

The Shipping and Commercial List and New York Price Current for October 7, 1891, gave the following quotations for cocoa: