Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-18

enraQed by the depredations committed by the forest quadrupeds, for the rats, not con- tant with the succulent sugar cane, carefully suck out the sweet pulp of the cacao. Where monkeys are abundant, as in Grenada, they commit great havoc, not only gnawing holes in the pods, but carrying away all they can hold in their arms. In one of my monkey hunting excursions Istopped at the house of
 a very agreeable planter in the mountains
 He declared that one year the monkeys nearly
 destroyed his crops. and not only ate the
 cacao seeds. but brought the empty pods and
 placed them on his door step, thus adding in
 suit to injury"
 The other account was written by Mrs. O.
 A. Nourse for the 'sConfectioners Journal''
 and has with it @ fine wood cut, showing s'the
 cocoa tree,'' collecting the cocoa" s'cocoa
 shells and plantations, and representations
 of the leaves and fruit of the plant, the
 whole adorned with the cocoa palm, the ba-
 mana, and what seems to be the vanilla plant.
 Different methods of curing the beans are
 used in various places. They are often at once dried in the sun, as MT. Ober has de- scribed it to us This is said to be the usual process in the West Indies. In other places they are packed into tubs or chests, covered closely and allowed to ferment slightly before drying them. Another common process is to bury them for little while in trenches dug in the soil They are then dried on frames
 
 proach of rain. Sometimes the beans will be spoiled or injured in the curing. and then they can never be used for making good chocolate. After drying, the beans are now recognized as article of commerce under the name of cocoa.
 Those who raise their own cocoa, roast and pound, or grind a little of it for daily use according to their need. adding whatever fla voring whether vanilla or cinnamon or cloves, they prefer, and sweetening to their own taste.
 Montezuma's chocolate was undoubtedly prepared fresh every day, just as the de- scendants of his subjects and of his con- querors now commonly prepare it. The Mexicans do, however, to some extent pre- pare cakes of chocolate for preservation. l remember some that was brought home from Mexico by an officer of Gen. Zachary Taylor's s or so, and were made of very coarsely pound- ed cocoa. They were well sweetened and contained large proportion of some starchy material. For drink the chocolate is broken into small pieces and placed with wa. ter in red earthen pot, an upright cylindrl- cal pot and heated. When the chocolate is boiled enough it is stirred violently with 8 sort of dasher, much like that of an old-fashioned churn, except that the handle is rolled between the hands rather than worked up and down. The cho- colate is beaten into foam which the old CfaVellGrS Ooc1afeQ renamed 50 SLlu dlCeT buo chocolate was cold that it could be cut up and eaten in mouthfuls. This effect must have been due to the quantity of starch, or most likely fine maize meal in. the drink, rath- CT than to any special skill in milling 1t. Cocoa is now grown in most of the West India Islands, in Mexico and Central Amerl- ca and in South America, as far as Brazil. The cultivation is also introduced to some extent into the East Indies and the Philip pines.
 It is imported into the United States ex- | tensiyely from Trinidad, Venezuela, Ecua- dor and Brazil, that coming from Caraccas being perhaps the most highly esteemed, while the British seem to prefer the product of Trinidad. A tract on cocoa and chocolate | issued by the French house of Menier, says ''The cocoa tree demands thesmost careful | cultivation, a blazing sun, humid soil, the | shade and shelter of trees taller than itself, a | temperature never lower than 20o, (centigrade, ! about 67o Fahrenheit) conditions which are found only within the tropics, but which are l nowhere more constant than in Central | America, in the zone extending from the | Isthmus of Tehuantepec to Colombia. It is | there that are found the most precious varie- | ties, the Royal cocoa, or Soconusco, of which there never comes so much as single grain to Europe, the natives keeping it all for their | own use, and the better sorts that Europe | imports. Venezuela, Guatemala and Nicar- | agua furnish almost all this supply, and it is | from the port of Caraccas that these excel | lent cocoas come which bear the name Cara | ques or Cote-Ferme.
 | This house of Menier possesses it's own plantations of cacao trees in Nicaragua, g | great tract of about %, 900 acres being devo- I ted to the purpose. Even this does not suf- | fee for the demands of the house, and large 1 quantities have to be purchased for the mar kets.
 Cocoa seeds yield several products which ! 6a rf he cocoa shells; 2d, the cocoa butter 3d. the | prepared cocoa; 4th, chocolate; 5th, various | compound preparations. The speaker, 1n | describing these processes, spoke of the | drink made from the prepared shells, o1 l which it was said that ''it neither cheers nol inebriates, :" and was by no means disagreea l ble; while in reference to cocoa butter it was | added that ''it is recommended as substi. 1 tute for the nauseous cod liver oil, which our | physicians are so fond of prescribing, but
 whether it is quite so easily digested and as- simulated may perhaps be doubted" The lecturer, after treating his topic fur l ther in its various phases, concluded as fol lows
 Theobromine, the peculiar principle ot cocoa, is said to be nearly identical with that l derived from coffee and from tea. Practi cally, however, cocoa and chocolate are not l nearly so stimulating as tea and coffee, but owing to the II per cent. of starch, and the | 51 to B per cent. of oil in cocoa, they are | very nourishing. A writer who undertook to 1 write upon the influence. of chocolate on the 1 physical and mental nature of man says:
 '"The chocolate paste is very nourishing. l Strong stomachs always bear it, but there are some that do not digest it without difficulty. | Thence proceeds the custom of drinking a l glass of water after it, which facilitates it's l digestion. Salutary to many persons, it is l injurious to others. Chocolate is sometimes
 recommended as restorative food, | to the aged and to weak and l worn out persons, as well as to those of a I bilious constitution. The cerebral organ of l man (that is to say the brain) is influenced | by chocolate only in secondary manner.
 This paste, not acting upon the nervous sys-
 tenn, cannot react upon the brain when the
 stomach digests it without difficulty; it per 1 forms it's functions as @ tonic and nourishing aliment without the brains feeling any effect from it. But when it is 1 given at improper time, and deposited
 in digestive system too weak to elaborate l it, it produces the same effects in the head as
 all alimentary substances of difficult diges-
 tion, that is to say, it causes heaviness in the
 head and dimness of sight; it is not amidst i such Arrangements that one can devote him.
 self to intellectual labors requiring great ap- l plication of mind and perhaps freedom of all ] the organs"
 l Chocolate is, then, not a narcotic, like to-
 bacco; or astimulant, like wine, or coffee, or | tea; it is simply-chocolate.
 Board of Selectmen.
 l A Moral Obligation Consummated-BilIs