reen but sound, the worm-eaten, and the rotten. The first quality is
best, the second is not bad; but the two others should be rejected.

As soon as that which is not fully ripe begins to show specks, it must
be separated. As to the pods which are not perfectly ripe, they should
remain in heaps during three days under green banana leaves, that they
may ripen before they are hulled. When the cacao is stored, great care
is necessary not to leave amongst it pieces of the pod or leaves, or
any other excrementitious particles. This care must be repeated every
time that it is removed from the store, or replaced in it.

The cacao must always be exposed to the sun on the fourth day after it
has been gathered, and this exposure should be daily repeated until it
is perfectly dry. When that is the case, the beans burst on being
squeezed, their shell resounds when struck, and they no longer become
heated when placed in heaps; the latter is the best proof that the
moisture injurious to their preservation is dissipated. If the cacao
is not sufficiently exposed to the sun, it becomes mouldy; if too
much, it withers, and easily pulverises--in either case it soon rots.

When the quantity of cacao gathered is considerable, it is placed in
the sunshine by a hundred quintals at a time, unless the cultivator
has a sufficient number of persons employed to expose a greater
quantity. This operation is indispensable, to prevent it from becoming
mouldy. If the rains prevent this exposure to the sun, it is
necessary, as soon as it is sufficiently cleaned or purified, to
spread it in apartments, galleries, or halls, with which the
plantation must be provided; this operation cannot be delayed without
danger of losing the crop.

It is to be wished that stoves were employed to dry the cacao when the
sun fails, but this expedient, so simple and important, is generally
unknown.

It is almost universally believed that the most essential precautions
for preserving the cacao consists in gathering it at the decline of
the moon. I believe that they may more seriously calculate on the care
of depositing it in apartments so hermetically closed that the air
cannot penetrate; it would be advisable to make these apartments of
wood, for the more perfect exclusion of moisture. The floor should be
elevated two feet; under the floor a pan of coals is placed, covered
with a funnel, the point of which enters into the heap of cacao and
then diffuses the vapor. In