If the earth of the plantations be pressed and trampled down by
animals, the duration of the plant is diminished. Irrigation, made
with judgment, maintains them long in a state of produce.

_Withering of the fruit._--The fruit of the cacao withers on the tree
from three causes:--

First.--When the plantation is, during a long time, inundated with
water. I have seen plantations of cacao, which had only been covered
with water thirty hours, and of which the fruit was totally withered.

Second.--From abundant rains, particularly in very damp valleys. This
is only to be remedied by keeping the plantation well drained, that
the water may not remain on it.

Third.--A want of necessary irrigation, and the watering of the
plantation under an ardent sun. The vapor from the earth kills the
fruit. If the rains are deficient for a time, and an excessive rain
succeeds, the fruit of the cacao also withers.

This dessication or withering takes place everywhere; but in some
places the surplus of fruit, which the tree is unable to nourish, is
alone subject to it. In others, as Araquita and Caucagua, it withers
in proportion to the northerly rains. An unsuitable soil occasions
another kind of decay. The pods become stinted, containing some good
and some bad seeds. The Spaniards call this _cocosearse_, which means
defective.

_Harvest of the cacao_.--The tree yields two principal crops in a
year, one about St. John's day, the other towards the end of December.
The cacao however ripens and is gathered during the whole year. But in
all seasons the planters of the Central American republics make it a
point, so far as possible, to collect their crops only at the decline
of the moon; because experience proves that this precaution renders
the cacao more solid, and less liable to spoil.

To collect the fruit, those negroes and Indians are employed who have
the sharpest sight, that only the ripe fruit may be gathered. The most
robust and active are chosen to carry it to the places where the beans
are to be shaken out. The aged and maimed are employed to do this. The
operation is performed on a floor well swept, and covered with green
leaves, on which they place the cacao. Some open the pod, and others
strike out the beans with a small piece of wood, which must not be
sharp, lest it should injure them.

The good and bad beans must not be mingled together. There are four
sorts of cacao in every crop; the ripe and in good condition, the
g