ce larger than a man's
hand. After the universal glare outside, it seems dark under the cacao,
although the ground is bright with dappled sunshine. You hear a noise of
talking, of rustling leaves, and falling pods. You come upon a band of
coolies or negroes. One near you carries a long bamboo--as long as a
fishing rod--with a knife at the end. With a lithe movement he inserts
it between the boughs, and, by giving it a sharp jerk, neatly cuts the
stalk of a pod, which falls from the tree to the ground. Only the ripe
pods must be picked. To do this, not only must the picker's aim be true,
but he must also have a good eye for colour. Whether the pods be red or
green, as soon as the colour begins to be tinted with yellow it is ripe
for picking. This change occurs first along the furrows in the pod.
Fewer unripe pods would be gathered if only one kind of pod were grown
on one plantation. The confusion of kinds and colours which is often
found makes sound judgment very difficult. That the men generally judge
correctly the ripeness of pods high in the trees is something to wonder
at. The pickers pass on, strewing the earth with ripe pods. They are
followed by the graceful, dark-skinned girls, who gather one by one the
fallen pods from the greenery, until their baskets are full. Sometimes a
basketful is too heavy and the girl cannot comfortably lift it on to her
head, but when one of the men has helped her to place it there, she
carries it lightly enough. She trips through the trees, her bracelets
jingling, and tumbles the pods on to the heap. Once one has seen a great
heap of cacao pods it glows in one's memory: anything more rich, more
daring in the way of colour one's eye is unlikely to light on. The
artist, seeking only an aesthetic effect would be content with this for
the consummation and would wish the pods to remain unbroken.

[Illustration: COLLECTING CACAO PODS INTO A HEAP PRIOR TO BREAKING.]

_Breaking and Extracting._

There are planters who believe that the product is improved by leaving
the gathered pods several days before breaking; and they would follow
the practice, but for the risk of losses by theft. Hence the pods are
generally broken on the same day as they are gathered. The primitive
methods of breaking with a club or by banging on a hard surface are
happily little used. Masson of New York made pod-breaking machines, and
Sir George Watt has recently invented an ingenious machine for squeezing
the bea