jug (with rounded bottom and narrower neck by preference) mix 1½
dessert spoonfuls (¾ oz.) of Cocoa Essence with equal bulk of
powdered white sugar, and stir to a thin paste with a little boiling
water. Mix in an enamelled saucepan one breakfast-cup of milk with two
cups of water (cups to be about ¾ full), and boil with care. When on
the boil, pour this over the contents of the jug, and whisk vigorously
for a few seconds (see illustration, p. 1). Serve to table without
delay. To make a richer drink, use equal parts of milk and water. To
ensure the beverage being served as hot as possible, it is desirable
to warm the jug before the cocoa is put into it. The effect of this
method of preparation is to impart to the cocoa a more mellow taste,
and to produce a deep froth on the surface, giving it a most
appetizing appearance. The thorough mixing to which the cocoa is
subjected also materially lessens the amount of sediment in the bottom
of the cup.


[Illustration--Colour Plate: CACAO PODS]




II. ITS GROWTH AND CULTIVATION.



[Illustration--Drawing: CACAO HARVESTING.]

Cocoa is now grown in many parts of the tropics, reference to which is
made in another chapter. The conditions, however, do not greatly vary,
and there are probably many lands in the tropical belt where it is yet
unknown that possess soil well suited to its extended cultivation.

The cacao-tree grows wild in the forests of Central America, and
varieties have been found also in Jamaica and other West Indian
islands, and in South America. It does not thrive more than fifteen
degrees north or south of the equator, and even within these limits it
is not very successfully grown more than 600 feet above the sea-level;
in many districts where sugar formerly monopolized the plains, it was
supposed that cocoa needed an altitude of at least 200 feet, but
experiments of planting on the old sugar estates and other low-lying
places are generally successful where the soil is good, as in
Trinidad, Cuba, and British Guiana. It has been found that the expense
saved in roads, labour, and transit on the level has been very
considerable in comparison with that incurred on some of the hill
estates.

In appearance the cacao-tree is not greatly unlike one of our own
orchard trees, and trained by the pruning knife it grows similar in
shape to a well-kept apple tree, no very low boughs being left, so
that a man on horseback can generally pass freely down the long
glades. Left to nature, it will in good soil reach a height of over
twenty feet, and its branches will extend for ten feet from the
centre.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Ceylon: Nursery of Cacao
Seedlings in Baskets of plaited Palm Leaf.]

The best soil is that made by the decomposition of volcanic rock, so
that it is a common sight to find areas strewn with large boulders
turned into a cocoa plantation of great fertility; but the best trees
of all lie along the _vegas_ which intersect the hills, where the soil
is deep, and the stream winding among the trees supplies natural
irrigation. The tree also grows well in loams and the richer marls,
but will not thrive on clay and other heavy soils.

The cacao is one of the tenderest of tropical growths, and will not
flourish in any exposed position, for which reason large shade belts
are left along exposed ridges and other parts of a hill estate, thus
greatly reducing the total area under cultivation, in comparison with
an estate of equal extent on the level plains, where no shade belts
are necessary.

The beans are planted either "at stake,"--when three beans are put in
round each stake, the one thriving best after the first year being
left to mature,--or "from nursery," whence, after a few months' growth
in bamboo or palm-leaf baskets, they are transplanted into the
clearing.

The preparation of the land is the first and greatest expense; trees
have to be felled, and bush cut down and spread over the land, so that
the sun can quickly render it combustible. When all is clear, the
cacao is put in among a "catch crop" of vegetables (the cassava,
tania, pigeon-pea, and others), and frequently bananas, though, as
taking more nutriment from the soil, they are sometimes objected to.
But the seedling cacao needs a shade, and as it is some years before
it comes into bearing, it is usual to plant the "catch crop" for the
sake of a small return on the land, as well as to meet this need.

In Trinidad, at the same time that the cacao[10] is planted at about
twelve feet centres, large forest trees are also planted at from fifty
to sixty feet centres, to provide permanent shade. The tree most used
for this purpose is the _Bois Immortelle_ (_Erythrina umbrosa_); but
others are also employed, and experiments are now being made on some
estates to grow rubber as a shade tree. In recent clearings in Samoa,
trees are left standing at intervals to serve this end.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Samoa: Cacao in its fourth Year.]

In Grenada, British West Indies, and some other districts, shade is
entirely dispensed with, and the trees are planted at about eight feet
centres, thus forming a denser foliage. By this means at least 500
trees will be raised on an acre, against less than 300 in Trinidad,
the result showing almost invariably a larger output from the Grenada
estates. This practice is better suited to steep hillside plantations
than to those in open valleys or on the plains.

The cacao leaves, at first a tender yellowish-brown, ultimately turn
to a bright green, and attain a considerable size, often fourteen to
eighteen inches in length, sometimes even larger. The tree is subject
to scale insects, which attack the leaf, also to grubs, which quickly
rot the limbs and trunks, this last being at one time a very serious
pest in Ceylon. If left to Nature the trees are quickly covered
lichen, moss, "vines," ferns, and innumerable parasitic growths, and
the cost of keeping an estate free from all the natural enemies which
would suck the strength of the tree and lessen the crop is very great.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Young Cultivation, with catch
Crop of Bananas, Cassava, and Tania: Trinidad.]

The cacao will bloom in its third year, but does not bear fruit till
its fourth or fifth. The flower is small, out of all proportion to the
size of the mature fruit. Little clusters of these tiny pink and
yellow blossoms show in many places along the old wood of the tree,
often from the upright trunk itself, and within a few inches of the
ground; they are extremely delicate, and a planter will be satisfied
if every third or fourth produces fruit. In dry weather or cold, or
wind, the little pods only too quickly shrivel into black shells; but
if the season be good they as quickly swell, till, in the course of
three or four months, they develop into full grown pods from seven to
twelve inches long. During the last month of ripening they are subject
to the attack of a fresh group of enemies--squirrels, monkeys, rats,
birds, deer, and others, some of them particularly annoying, as it is
often found that when but a small hole has been made, and a bean or
so extracted, the animal passes on to similarly attack another pod;
such pods rot at once. Snakes generally abound in the cacao regions,
and are never killed, being regarded as the planter's best friends,
from their hostility to his animal foes. A boa will probably destroy
more than the most zealous hunter's gun.

[Illustration--Drawing: PODS OF CACAO THEOBROMA.]

From its twelfth to its sixtieth year, or later, each tree will bear
from fifty to a hundred and fifty pods, according to the season, each
pod containing from thirty-six to forty-two beans. Eleven pods will
produce about a pound of cured beans, and the average yield of a large
estate will be, in some cases, four hundredweight per acre, in
others, twice as much. The trees bear nearly all the year round, but
only two harvests are gathered, the most abundant from November to
January, known as the "Christmas crop," and a smaller picking about
June, known as the "St. John's crop." The trees throw off their old
leaves about the time of picking, or soon after; should the leaves
change at any other time, the young flower and fruit will also
probably wither.

Of the many varieties of the cacao, the best known are the _criollo_,
_forastero_, and _calabacilla_. The _criollo_ ("native") fruit is of
average size, characterized by a "pinched" neck and a curving point.
This is the best kind, though not the most productive; it is largely
planted in Venezuela, Columbia and Ceylon, and produces a bean light
in colour and delicate in flavour. The _forastero_ ("foreign") pod is
long and regular in shape, deeply furrowed, and generally of a rough
surface. The _calabacilla_ ("little calabash") is smooth and round,
like the fruit after which it is named. All varieties are seen in
bearing with red, yellow, purple, and sometimes green pods, the colour
not being necessarily an indication of ripeness.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Varieties of the Cacao.]

On breaking open the pod, the beans are seen clinging in a cluster
round a central fibre, the whole embedded in a white sticky pulp,
through which the red skin of the cacao-bean shows a delicate pink.
The pulp has the taste of acetic acid, refreshing in a hot climate,
but soon dries if exposed to the sun and air. The pod or husk is of a
porous, woody nature, from a quarter to half an inch thick, which,
when thrown aside on warm moist soil, rots in a day or two.

Much has been written of life on a cocoa estate; and all who have
enjoyed the proverbial hospitality of a West Indian or Ceylon planter,
highly praise the conditions of their life. The description of an
estate in the northern hills of Trinidad will serve as an example. The
other industry of this island is sugar, in cultivating which the
coloured labourers work in the broiling sun, as near to the steaming
lagoon as they may in safety venture. Later on in the season the long
rows between the stifling canes have to be hoed; then, when the time
of "crop" arrives, the huge mills in the _usine_ are set in motion,
and for the longest possible hours of daylight the workers are in the
field, loading mule-cart or light railway with massive canes. In the
yard around the crushing-mills the shouting drivers bring their
mule-teams to the mouth of the hopper, and the canes are bundled into
the crushing rollers with lightning speed. The mills run on into the
night, and the hours of sleep are only those demanded by stern
necessity, until the crop is safely reaped and the last load of canes
reduced to shredded _megass_ and dripping syrup.

But upon the cocoa estate there is lasting peace. From the railway on
the plain we climb the long valley, our strong-boned mule or lithe
Spanish horse taking the long slopes at a pleasant amble, standing to
cool in the ford of the river we cross and re-cross, or plucking the
young shoots of the graceful bamboos so often fringing our path.
Villages and straggling cottages, with palm thatch and _adobe_ walls,
are passed, orange or bread-fruit shading the little garden, and
perhaps a mango towering over all. The proprietor is still at work on
the plantation, but his wife is preparing the evening meal, while the
children, almost naked, play in the sunshine.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: The Home of the Cacao.
(_One of Messrs. Cadburys' Estates, Maracas, Trinidad._)]

The cacao-trees of neighbouring planters come right down to the ditch
by the roadside, and beneath dense foliage, on the long rows of stems
hang the bright glowing pods. Above all towers the _bois immortelle_,
called by the Spaniards _la madre del cacao_, "the mother of the
cacao." In January or February the _immortelle_ sheds its leaves and
bursts into a crown of flame-coloured blossom. As we reach the
shoulder of the hill, and look down on the cacao-filled hollow, with
the _immortelle_ above all, it is a sea of golden glory, an
indescribably beautiful scene. Now we note at the roadside a plant of
dragon's blood, and if we peer among the trees there is another just
within sight; this, therefore, is the boundary of two estates. At an
opening in the trees a boy slides aside the long bamboos which form
the gateway, and a short canter along a grass track brings us to the
open savanna or pasture around the homestead.

Here are grazing donkeys, mules, and cattle, while the chickens run
under the shrubs for shelter, reminding one of home. The house is
surrounded with crotons and other brilliant plants, beyond which is a
rose garden, the special pride of the planter's wife. If the sun has
gone down behind the western hills, the boys will come out and play
cricket in the hour before sunset. These savannas are the beauty-spots
of a country clothed in woodland from sea-shore to mountain-top.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Ortinola, Maracas, Trinidad.]

Next morning we are awaked by a blast from a conch-shell. It is 6.30,
and the mist still clings in the valley; the sun will not be over the
hills for another hour or more, so in the cool we join the labourers
on the mule-track to the higher land, and for a mile or more follow a
stream into the heart of the estate. If it is crop-time, the men will
carry a _goulet_--a hand of steel, mounted on a long bamboo--by the
sharp edges of which the pods are cut from the higher branches without
injury to the tree. Men and women all carry cutlasses, the one
instrument needful for all work on the estate, serving not only for
reaping the lower pods, but for pruning and weeding, or "cutlassing,"
as the process of clearing away the weed and brush is called.

[Illustration--Drawing: GOULET AND WOODEN SPOON.]

[Illustration--Drawing: CUTLASSES.]

Gathering the pods is heavy work, always undertaken by men. The pods
are collected from beneath the trees and taken to a convenient heap,
if possible near to a running stream, where the workers can refill
their drinking-cups for the mid-day meal. Here women sit, with trays
formed of the broad banana leaves, on which the beans are placed as
they extract them from the pod with wooden spoons. The result of the
day's work, placed in panniers on donkey-back, is "crooked" down to
the cocoa-house, and that night remains in box-like bins, with
perforated sides and bottom, covered in with banana leaves. Every
twenty-four hours these bins are emptied into others, so that the
contents are thoroughly mixed, the process being continued for four
days or more, according to circumstances.

This is known as "sweating." Day by day the pulp becomes darker, as
fermentation sets in, and the temperature is raised to about 140° F.
During fermentation a dark sour liquid runs away from the sweat-boxes,
which is, in fact, a very dilute acetic acid, but of no commercial
value. During the process of "sweating" the cotyledons of the
cocoa-bean, which are at first a purple colour and very compact in the
skin, lose their brightness for a duller brown, and expand the skin,
giving the bean a fuller shape. When dry, a properly cured bean should
crush between the finger and thumb.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Cacao Drying in the Sun, Maracas,
Trinidad.]

Finally the beans are turned on to a tray to dry in the sun. They are
still sticky, but of a brown, mahogany colour. Among them are pieces
of fibre and other "trash," as well as small, undersized beans, or
"balloons," as the nearly empty shell of an unformed bean is called.
While a man shovels the beans into a heap, a group of women, with
skirts kilted high, tread round the sides of the heap, separating the
beans that still hold together. Then the beans are passed on to be
spread in layers on trays in the full heat of the tropical sun, the
temperature being upwards of 140° F.[11] When thus spread, the women
can readily pick out the foreign matter and undersized beans. Two or
three days will suffice to dry them, after which they are put in bags
for the markets of the world, and will keep with but very slight loss
of weight or aroma for a year or more.

Between crops the labourers are employed in "cutlassing," pruning,
and cleaning the land and trees. Nearly all the work is in pleasant
shade, and none of it harder than the duties of a market gardener in
our own country; indeed, the work is less exacting, for daylight lasts
at most but thirteen hours, limiting the time that a man can see in
the forest: ten hours per day, with rests for meals, is the average
time spent on the estate. Wages are paid once a month, and a whole
holiday follows pay-day, when the stores in town are visited for
needful supplies. Other holidays are not infrequent, and between crops
the slacker days give ample time for the cultivation of private
gardens.

Labourers from India are largely imported by the Government under
contract with the planters, and the strictest regulations are observed
in the matter of housing, medical aid, etc. At the expiration of the
term of contract (about six years) a free pass is granted to return to
India, if desired. Many, however, prefer to remain in their adopted
home, and become planters themselves, or continue to labour on the
smaller estates, which are generally worked by free labour, as the
preparations for contracted labour are expensive, and can only be
undertaken on a large scale.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Labourer's Cottage, Cacao Estate,
Trinidad. (Bread Fruit and Bananas.)]

The natives of India work on very friendly terms with the coloured
people of the islands, the descendants of the old African slaves, and
the cocoa estate provides a healthy life for all, with a home amid
surroundings of the most congenial kind.[12]

[Illustration--Drawing: BASKETS OF CACAO ON PLANTAIN LEAVES.]

In other cocoa-growing countries processes vary somewhat. On the
larger estates artificial drying is slowly superseding the natural
method, for though the sun at its best is all that is needed, a
showery day will seriously interfere with the process, even though the
sliding roof is promptly pulled across to keep the rain from the
trays.

In Venezuela an old Spanish custom still prevails of sprinkling a fine
red earth over the beans in the process of drying; this plan has
little to recommend it, unless it be for the purpose of long storage
in warehouses in the tropics, when the "claying" may protect the bean
from mildew and preserve the aroma. In Ceylon it is usual to
thoroughly wash the beans after the process of fermentation, thus
removing all remains of the pulp, and rendering the shell more tender
and brittle. Such beans arrive on the market in a more or less broken
state, and it seems probable that they are more subject to
contamination owing to the thinness of the shell. The best "estate"
cocoa from Ceylon has a very bright, clear appearance, and commands a
high price on the London market; this cocoa is of the pure _criollo_
strain, light brown (pale burnt sienna) in colour.

[Illustration--Colour Plate: CACAO TREE AND SEEDLING]

The valleys of Trinidad and Grenada have grown cocoa for upwards of a
hundred years, but up to the present time very little in the way of
manuring has been done beyond the natural vegetable deposits of the
forest. In many estates of recent years cattle have been quartered in
temporary pens on the hills, moving on month by month, with a large
central pen for the stock down on the savanna.

The cocoa-beans are shipped to Europe in bags containing from one to
one and a half hundredweight, and are disposed of by the London
brokers nearly every Tuesday in the year at a special sale in the
Commercial Sale Room in Mincing Lane.

The cacao-tree has sometimes been grown from seed in hot-houses in
this country, but always with difficulty, for not only must a mean
temperature of at least 80° F. be maintained, but the tree must be
shielded from all draught. Among the most successful are the trees
grown by Mr. James Epps, Jun., of Norwood, by whose kind permission
the accompanying sketches from life were made. Success has only
crowned his efforts after many years of patient care. To grow a mere
plant was comparatively simple, but to produce even a flower needed
long tending, and involved much disappointment; while to secure
fruition by cross-fertilization was a still more difficult task,
accomplished in England probably on only one other occasion.


FOOTNOTES:

[10] For full information on the subject of planting, see Simmond's
"Tropical Agriculture" (Spon, London and New York); Nicholl's
"Tropical Agriculture" (Macmillan).

[11] See plate facing p. 77.

[12] See _frontispiece_.




III. ITS MANUFACTURE.


[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Bournville: "The Factory in
a Garden."]

[Illustration--Drawing: "ON ARRIVAL AT THE FACTORY".]

Up to this point the operations described have taken place in the
lands where cacao is produced. To watch the further processes in its
development as an article of food, let us in imagination follow one of
the shiploads of cacao on its sea journey from the far tropics to one
of the countries of the old world, until the sacks of beans are
finally deposited at a cocoa factory. An English factory, that of
Messrs. Cadbury, at Bournville, affords an excellent illustration of
its manufacture, not only because about a third of all the beans
imported into this country are treated there, but also because this
treatment is effected amid ideal surroundings. Half a century ago
Messrs. Cadbury Brothers employed but a dozen or twenty hands, and
until within the last twenty-six years the firm was established in the
town of Birmingham. The need for greater accommodation for the rapidly
growing business, and a desire to secure improved conditions for the
work-people, led to the removal of the factory to a distance of about
four miles south of the city. A number of cottages erected for the
work-people in those early days became the nucleus of a great scheme
which in the last few years has expanded into the model village of
Bournville, a name taken from the neighbouring Bourn stream. Year by
year the factory grew and developed, until the green hay-fields, with
the trout stream flowing through them, became gradually covered with
buildings. To-day the factory seems like a small town in itself,
intersected by streets, and surrounded by its own railway. But the
greenness of the country clings wherever a chance is afforded, ivy and
other creepers adorning the brick walls, window boxes bright with
flowers, and trees planted here and there; for no opportunity has been
neglected of making the surroundings beautiful.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Bournville Cocoa Works: Office
Buildings.]

Taking train from the city, glimpses can be caught, as we near our
destination, of the pretty houses and gardens of the village, forming
a great contrast to the densely populated district of Stirchley on the
other side of the line. Stepping on to the station, we are greeted by
a whiff of the most delicious fragrance, which is quite enough of
itself to betray the whereabouts of the great factory lying beneath
us, of which from this point we have a fairly good bird's-eye view.
Down the station steps, and a few yards up the lane to the left, with
a playing field on one side, and on the other a plantation of
fir-trees almost hiding the red brick and timbered gables of the
office buildings, and we have arrived at the factory lodge. Looking
through the open door down a vista of archways bowered in clematis
and climbing roses, with an alpine rock garden at each side of the
broad walk, we might almost imagine ourselves to be at the entrance to
some botanical gardens. But a glance at the thousands of check hooks
covering the inner wall of the lodge informs us that more than 2,400
girls pass in and out every day. The men's lodge is at a separate
gate.

Before entering the works, a few steps further along the road will
give us some idea of the many advantages gained by moving the factory
out into the country. Just opposite the lodge a sloping path leads to
the cycle-house, where some 200 machines are stored during work hours.
Beyond this, in the middle of a flower garden, stands the Estate
Office of the Bournville Village Trust, and in the background higher
up a girls' pavilion can be seen through the trees. Behind it stretch
asphalt tennis-courts and playing-fields, bordered by a belt of fine
old trees, under whose shade wind pretty shrubbery walks lined with
rustic seats. A passage under the road leads straight from the
works into these beautiful grounds, and on a summer's day few prettier
sights could be found than the numbers of white-robed girls who stream
across in the dinner-hour to revel in the sunshine of the open fields,
or sit in groups beneath the shady trees, enjoying a picnic lunch. A
little further along the road the trees and the rhododendron bushes
sweep backwards, leaving an open space, where a smooth lawn reaches to
the front of a fine old mansion, for many years used as a home for
some fifty of the work-girls whose own homes are at a distance, or who
have no home at all. The fruit gardens and vineries belonging to
"Bournville Hall" are used for the benefit of work-people who are ill.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Coronation Cricket Pavilion,
Bournville.]

Turning back again, we find on the other side of the road a
magnificent pavilion, the Coronation gift of the firm to their
employees, which overlooks the broad level stretch of one of the
finest cricket grounds in the Midlands. Away in the hollow beyond, the
Bourn forms a picturesque, shady pool, part of which is used to make a
capital open-air swimming bath for the men. In the rising background
are the pretty houses and the gardens of the model village. Still
retracing our steps, we now come to the original cottages built by the
firm. Plainer and less picturesque than those of more modern
construction, their air of comfort, and the creepers which cover many
of their walls, make them harmonize well with their surroundings. One
of them is now used as a youths' club, providing games, a circulating
library, and reading and lecture rooms. Another contains club rooms
for the office staff. In passing we catch sight of a fine swimming
bath for the girls.

Through the lodge and under the clematis, a few steps bring us to the
private railway-station, which in size would do credit to many a town.
Here trucks are loaded with finished goods and despatched to their
various destinations. Every working day of the year a long train,
extending often in the busiest season to as many as forty truck-loads,
steams out of this station to scatter the productions of Bournville
over the face of the Earth. Close by the station we turn into the
offices, where the fittings and general arrangement convey an air of
refined solidity according well with the goods produced.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Girls' Dining Hall, Bournville.]

Before proceeding to study the manufacture of cocoa essence and
chocolate from the bean as it is imported, it will be interesting to
see the careful provision that is made for the health and cleanliness
of the workers, for in connection with any food nothing is of greater
importance than the circumstances attending its preparation. A
gratuitous sick club is provided by the firm for the employees,
including the services of a doctor and three trained nurses. A special
retiring room, comfortably furnished, is provided for girls needing a
quiet hour's rest.

We are taken into the girls' dining-hall, capable of seating over two
thousand at a time, fitted with benches, the backs of which are
convertible into table tops. The far end of the dining-hall leads into
the huge kitchen, to which the girls can bring their own dinners to be
cooked, or where they can buy a large variety of things at
coffee-house prices. Here again the health of the workers is carefully
studied. Fruit is made a speciality, an experienced buyer being
employed to insure its better supply. A private dining-room is
provided for the forewomen.

Returning to the dining-hall, we descend a flight of steps into the
spacious dressing-rooms, with vistas of wooden screens, filled on each
side with numbered hooks. Here every morning the thousands of girls
not only divest themselves of their outer garments, but change their
dresses for washing frocks of white holland. The material for these is
provided by the firm, free for the first, and afterwards at less than
cost price, and the girls are required to start work in a clean frock
every Monday morning. It will be seen at once how this helps them to
keep neat and respectable; their strong white washing frocks only
being soiled by their work, after which they change back into their
own unstained clothes, and turn out looking as great a contrast to the
usually pictured type of factory girl as can be imagined. The
forewomen also conform to this arrangement, but wear washing dresses
of blue cotton to distinguish them from the girls. Round the walls of
this vast dressing-room hot-water pipes are placed, and over these are
shelves where on a rainy day wet boots can be deposited to dry.
Specially thoughtful is the provision of rubber snow-shoes, imported
from America for their use, and supplied under cost price. Beneath
each stool, too, is a shelf for heavy boots, which can be replaced in
the factory by slippers.

[Illustration--Drawing: BOOT-SHELF ON STOOL.]

Mention has already been made of the provision for illness or
accidents, and of the care shown in the many arrangements for
maintaining and improving the health and physical development of the
girls. Further evidence of this is found in the airy and well-lighted
work-rooms, from which funnels and exhaust fans collect and carry off
all dust, and improve the ventilation, so that in spite of the
multitudinous operations in progress, the whole place is kept as
"spick and span" as a ship of the line. But another aggressive sign of
the firm's belief in the motto _mens sana in corpore sano_ is the
presence of a lady whose whole time is devoted to the physical culture
of the girls. Trained in Swedish athletics, this lady and her
assistant undertake the teaching, not only of gymnastics, but of
swimming and numerous games. Every day drill classes are held, an
opportunity being thus provided for all the younger girls to attend a
half-hour's lesson twice a week.

The result of all this thoughtful care is abundantly evident in the
general air of health and comfort which pervades the whole factory,
and in the bright faces which greet us at every turn, as we pass to
and fro among the busy workers in this monster hive.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: The Dinner Hour, Bournville.]

Entering now, and turning into the private station, we see thousands
of sacks of the freshly-imported beans being transferred to the
neighbouring stores. The new arrivals must first be sifted and picked
over to get rid of any that may be unsound, or of any foreign material
still remaining. This is accomplished by a sorting and winnowing
machine, which delivers by separate shoots the cleaned beans, graded
according to size, and the dust and foreign matter.

A battery of roasters await the survivors of this operation, which are
automatically conveyed to the hoppers. High-pressure steam supplies
the requisite heat without waste or smoke, and as the huge drums
slowly rotate, experienced workmen, on whose judgment great reliance
is placed, carefully watch their contents, and decide when precisely
the right degree of roasting has been attained to secure the richest
aroma. Then they are passed through a cooling chamber, after which
they are in condition for "breaking down."

This consists in cracking the shells of the beans, and releasing the
kernels or "nibs," from which the shells and dust are winnowed by a
powerful blast. It is accomplished by carrying the beans mechanically
to the cracking machine at a considerable height, whence husks and
nibs are allowed to fall before the winnower: the separated nibs are
assorted according to size. Some of the shells find their way to the
Emerald Isle, to be used by the peasants for the weak infusion called
"miserables."

Now comes the important process of grinding, performed between
horizontal mill-stones, the friction of which produces heat and melts
the "butter," while it grinds the "nibs" till the whole mass flows,
solidifying into a brittle cake when cold.

The thick fluid of the consistency of treacle flowing from the
grinding-mills is poured into round metal pots, the top and bottom of
which are lined with pads of felt, and these are, when filled, put
under a powerful hydraulic press, which extracts a large percentage of
the natural oil or butter. The pressure is at first light, but as soon
as the oil begins to flow the remaining mass in the press-pot is
stiffened into the nature of indiarubber, and upon this it is safe to
place any pressure that is desired. As it is not advisable to extract
all the butter possible, the pressure is regulated to give the
required result. In the end a firm, dry cake is taken from the press,
and when cool is ground again to the consistency of flour; this is the
"cocoa essence" for which the firm of Cadbury is so well known in all
parts of the world.[13]

Between cocoa and chocolate there are essential differences. Both are
made from the cocoa nib, but whereas in cocoa the nibs are ground
separately, and the butter extracted, in chocolate sugar and
flavourings are added to the nib, and all are ground together into a
paste, the sugar absorbing all the superfluous butter. If good quality
cocoa is used, the butter contained in the nib is all that is needful
to incorporate sugar and nib into one soft chocolate paste for
grinding and moulding, but in the commoner chocolates extra cocoa
butter has to be added. It is a regrettable fact that some
unprincipled makers are tempted to use cheaper vegetable fats as
substitutes for the natural butter, but none of these are really
palatable or satisfactory in use, and none of the leading British
firms are guilty of using such adulterants, or of the still more
objectionable practice of grinding cocoa-shells and mixing them with
their common chocolates.[14]

Flavouring is introduced according to the object in view; vanilla is
largely employed in this country, though in France and Spain cinnamon
is used, and elsewhere various spices. Willoughby, in his "Travels in
Spain" (1664), writes:

"To every three and a half pounds of powder they add two pounds
of sugar, twelve Vanillos, a little Guiny pepper (which is used
by the Spaniards only), and a little Achiote[15] to give a
colour. They melt the sugar, and then mingle all together, and
work it up either in rolls or leaves."

Another writer says: "The usual proportion at Madrid to a
hundred kernels of cocoa is to add two grains of Chile pepper,
a handful of anise, as many flowers--called by the natives
vinacaxtlides, or little ears--six white roses in powder, a pod
of campeche,[16] two drachms of cinnamon, a dozen almonds and
as many hazel-nuts, with achiote enough to give it a reddish
tincture; the sugar and vanilla are mixed at discretion, as
also the musk and ambergris. They frequently work this paste
with orange water, which they think gives it a greater
consistence and firmness."

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Bournville Village: Laburnum Road.]

When the chocolate is sufficiently ground it is put into a stove to
attain the correct temperature, and is then passed on to a
moulding-table, where it is pressed into tin moulds, and shaken till
it settles. After passing through a refrigerating chamber, the
contents of these moulds are ready as cakes of hard chocolate for
putting up in the well-known blue "Mexican," or the dark-red "Milk,"
packets.

It would, of course, be interesting to proceed to an inspection of the
many processes involved in making all the dainties that are prepared
with chocolate, and of the numerous trades concerned in the production
of packages, boxes, and fancy cases, did space permit. Room after room
might be visited, bright in the daylight, or equally well lighted by
electricity at night, humming with busy machines; some peopled with
girls--among whom only men wearing a certain badge on their arms are
allowed--some with men and boys, but all vibrating with a genial air
of content as well as of busy occupation. Suffice it to say that half
the handicrafts of the town seem represented in this centre of
industry, in every department of which order and cheerfulness reign
supreme. Each would require a chapter to do it justice, for everything
employed in packing seems to be made on the premises, and that, too,
on a system of piece-work paid for, not at the lowest possible price,
but on the basis of securing a satisfactory living wage to the average
worker. No wonder the faces around are bright, no wonder that openings
at the Bournville factory are in demand, and that long service for the
firm is the boast of so many of the employees. Among these, a little
band of about thirty still upholds the traditions of the old firm that
laid the foundations of the present company in the city of Birmingham.

[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Packing Room, Bournville.]

The work hours are forty-eight each week, and the wages depend both
on age and length of service, no man of twenty-three years of age and
over twelve months' service receiving less than 24s. weekly. There are
no deductions for sick club or fines, the sick fund, as before stated,
being a free gift from the company. Offences and late time are entered
in a record book, and an opportunity is given to wipe off all past
records by two years' good service. The Athletic Club, with over 500
voluntary subscribers, runs three cricket, four football, and two
hockey teams, besides bowling, tennis, swimming, and other sports. One
of the most interesting events of the Cricket Club is the annual match
with a team representing Messrs. Fry and Sons, of Bristol, the oldest
established cocoa firm in this country. In friendly opposition to the
"Bournville Club" are the teams drawn from the "Youths' Club," and
other outside organizations. A summer camp of over a hundred boys has
been successfully held at the seaside for some years past.

[Illustration--Drawing: SUGGESTION BOX.]

The recent introduction of the system of suggestion-boxes throughout
the works has been a great success. All employees are invited to make
suggestions, which are dealt with each week by two committees, one for
the men and one for the girls. Prizes amounting to about £80 are
offered every half-year for the best suggestions. During the first
seven months of operation over 1,000 suggestions were received, a very
large percentage of which were found sufficiently useful to be
adopted. The result has been to draw all sections closer together,
as each feels sure of getting due credit for original ideas. Many
important alterations in organization and methods of working have been
carried into effect, entirely owing to this scheme.[17]