Part 5

The seeds are carried from the orchard to the sheds, where they are prepared for market. Here they go through a process of fermentation or "sweating." For this purpose they are placed in a covered box, or they may even be covered with earth. This is called "claying." Now the seeds must be dried. They are spread out on platforms, raised a little above the ground, so that the air can circulate underneath. You notice that the roofs do not cover them just now, for their only purpose is to keep off the dew and the rain. They are fastened to frames which have wheels under them. During the day they are not used, but at night they are rolled over the cocoa.

The cocoa is stirred by workmen using long shovels or rakes, so that it may dry quickly and evenly. Once a day the beans are shoveled into heaps and the workmen tread upon them with their bare feet, as you see. This is called "dancing the cocoa."

After the seeds have dried for about two weeks they are nearly the color of red bricks. They are put up for shipment in canvas sacks holding one hundred and fifty pounds each. The name of the plantation is usually stamped upon the outside. Guayaquil exports more cocoa than any other city. Find it. A great deal comes from the island of Trinidad, and from the northern part of South America.

When the "beans" have reached their destination, they must be cleaned, to rid them of dust and dirt collected on the way. They are then placed in a great revolving cylinder and roasted. You remember that when coffee is roasted it brings out a pleasant odor called its _aroma_. The same is true of cocoa. The roasting also helps to loosen a shell which surrounds the seed. The shell is next removed and the "beans" are then crushed.

The Mexicans used to crush the seeds on a large stone, hollowed out on top. This they called a "matate."

The crushing is now done by machinery. The broken bits of the cocoa are called "cocoa nibs." When the cocoa is ground to a powder, it is put into strong bags and pressed. This pressure removes a part of an oily substance known as "cocoa butter." Remember, then, that cocoa is the meal or flour made from the crushed seeds from which some of the oil has been removed. Chocolate differs from cocoa in that none of this oil is removed in making it.

You have often seen the words "sweet chocolate" on the labels. This is made by adding a quantity of pulverized sugar to the "plain" or "bitter" chocolate. Sometimes vanilla beans are added.

The pasty mass known as chocolate must be molded. When the proper amount has been placed in each of several metal molds which rest on a table, they are made to rock or shake, and this causes the chocolate to assume the right shape. The molds are then taken to the cooling room, where they are placed on frames, one above another, in long rows. Girls and women wrap the cakes of chocolate in the wrappers specially prepared for them, after which they are packed in boxes ready for shipment.

At Dorchester, Massachusetts, on the Neponset River, is situated the largest establishment for the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate in America. It is interesting to know that on the very spot where these great mills now stand, was built, in 1765, the first one of the kind in this country.

A CRANBERRY BOG

WAREHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, Dec. 10, 1901.

DEAR FRANK: How surprised you will be to learn that I am now a country boy. We left Boston early last spring, and came out here to go into the business of cranberry raising. It seemed very strange at first to travel along country roads, or through woods and fields, instead of upon the cement walks of our city streets, but we all think the country delightful.

A cranberry farm is a marsh or a bog, so you will see that the vines need a great deal of water. There are both wild and cultivated bogs. Those that are cultivated are provided with a system of ditches, so that they can be flooded from time to time. It is a good deal like irrigation in Southern California, I suppose. We flood the bogs to prevent the berries from freezing, as well as to furnish the vines with water. I will tell you more about that by and by.

Father wanted a larger bog than the one he first bought, so, soon after we came, he got another small piece of marsh land which joins it on the west, and started vines on it.

You know that willows, rosebushes, grapevines, and many other plants will grow from _cuttings_. It is the same with cranberry vines. The lower end of each cutting is pressed into the soil, and it soon begins to grow. They are set in rows about fourteen inches apart. One of our neighbors, who was starting a bog at the same time, cut the vines into pieces an inch or two long, and scattered them over the ground. He then harrowed them in. The vines multiply just as strawberry plants do, by putting out _runners_.

They tell us that our new bog will produce a crop in three years. Do you have to wait that long for a crop of oranges?

By the middle of June our bog was in full blossom. The flowers are quite small and their color is a little like that of the flesh. I read an interesting thing about them the other day. It seems that the berries used to be called "craneberries," because people thought that the blossoms, just before they opened fully, "resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane." By dropping the _e_, we got the present name.

During our harvest time, which lasted from the middle of September to the last of October, we were very busy. We did not commence to go to school until the berries were picked. You see, frost may occur and spoil the crop, so that everybody works as fast as possible until the harvest is over. Father had about twenty pickers some of the time, besides our own family.

When we were ready to begin picking, father took some twine and stretched it back and forth across the bog, fastening it to small stakes. This divided the field into rows. Each picker was given a row, and he was not allowed to change until it was finished.

At first it seemed great fun to get down on the ground and strip off the bright berries, but when one does this day after day it gets pretty tiresome. It must be easy to pick oranges, because you can stand up while you work.

Father paid the pickers twelve cents a pail. It takes about three pailfuls to make a bushel. I averaged about one dollar and a half each day. I bought a suit of clothes and all of my books for the year, and have considerable money left. Some of the pickers who were quite small did not earn very much. Do you recognize Jennie? She worked a part of every day.

Twice during the picking season there was a sharp frost, but we saved the crop.

The government sends out a Weather Map every day. Our teacher gets one, and there is one tacked up in the post office every morning. These maps tell what kind of weather to expect, and father watches them closely. When he saw that frost was likely to occur, he and the men opened the gates which hold back the water, in order to flood the part of the bog where we had not picked. The vines were buried nearly two feet beneath the surface of the water. Father says the water cools so slowly that its temperature is much above that of the surface of the ground or the air near it, so the berries do not get frost-bitten. Soon after sunrise the water was drawn off, and the next day the bog was dry enough for the pickers to work.

I wonder if the Weather Bureau is of any use to farmers in California. I know that the sailors watch for the flags which tell when storms are coming, that they may not go to sea if a violent storm is expected. Father says very many lives and much property are saved every year in this way.

I have not told you what we do with the cranberries after they are picked. Of course we cannot help gathering some leaves and twigs with the berries, and these must be taken out. For this purpose the berries are put into a winnowing machine. I will send you a picture of one. As the man turns the crank, wooden fans within turn rapidly, blowing out the leaves, twigs, and dirt. The berries drop through a screen and run out of a spout into a barrel, as you see. We then put them into crates or barrels for sale. Father tells me that cranberries are shipped from our country to Europe, because those raised here are much better than the European berries.

There are great quantities of cranberries raised in this part of Massachusetts. I have been reading lately that they are produced in New Jersey, on Long Island, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Canada, and some other sections. From what I have read, I guess they are not raised in Southern California. Wouldn't it seem strange if you were to eat berries raised on our bog, three thousand miles away?

Now I want you to tell me about the orange groves of Southern California, for none of us have ever seen an orange growing.

I wish you all a very "Merry Christmas" and a "Happy New Year."

Your loving friend,

WILL.

THE COCOANUT ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC

Imagine yourself on a great ocean steamship, gliding over the blue water of the Pacific Ocean toward the Samoan Islands. Among the first things that you will see as you near the shores of these islands will be tall, slender, graceful trees, rising without a branch to a height of thirty to eighty feet. At the top is a sort of crown, composed of long, drooping leaves. These beautiful trees lean out over the water and toss their leaves in the strong and steady breeze from the ocean. They seem to nod a friendly greeting to you as you approach, and to wave a loving farewell to you as you sail away. These trees are the cocoanut palms. They grow on all of the tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean, in the West Indies, and along the shores of most warm countries, but never far from the sea.

When the cocoanut falls into the water, it is rocked and tossed by the waves and drifted about by the currents, but it is safe within its shell, for the salt water cannot penetrate this. When it finally comes to rest upon some strange shore, it is ready to give to the world another cocoanut palm, if the climate is like that from which it sailed. In this way nature has helped the trees to become widely distributed.

There are cocoanut plantations as well as wild groves of the trees. When a plantation is to be established, the planter selects the ripest nuts and dries them for several weeks. They are then planted, and by and by a little palm springs from the small end of the nut and the roots from the large end. When the young trees are from six months to two years old, they are transplanted in rows thirty or forty feet apart. They begin to bear nuts in about five years, but they do not yield a full crop for fifteen or twenty years. Do you think that a poor man could afford to go into the business of cocoanut raising?

As you see in the picture, cocoanuts grow in clusters. You notice also that they grow close to the stem instead of at the ends of the branches. They do not all ripen at once, but nuts may be picked at almost any time. A tree will produce from fifty to one hundred nuts each year. If you were to go into an apple, a peach, or a cherry orchard, you could easily pick the ripe fruit. Gathering cocoanuts is quite a different matter, however. Let us observe this shiny-skinned Samoan boy and see how he picks them. He fastens a short piece of rope in the form of a loop to each foot. Letting one of the loops catch on a rough place on the bark of the tree he places the hollow of his foot against it, clasps the trunk with his hands, and raises himself a little. Then the other loop is fastened a little higher up, and he raises himself again. In this way he finally reaches the nuts. With a knife he cuts off the ripe ones, which fall to the ground and are then piled up. They are then placed in baskets which are hung from a pole and carried on the shoulders of two men or are loaded on to donkeys and taken to the shed.

The ripe cocoanut is a valuable article of food just as it is picked from the tree. It contains also a milk which is a nourishing drink. Most of the cocoanut sent to other countries, however, is in a form known as _copra_.

At the shed the hard shell, which covers the meat, is split open by means of an ax. The meat is removed with a knife and is then spread out on mats to dry. This dried cocoanut is copra.

The inhabitants of these cocoanut islands live in a much more simple style than we do, and the cocoanut tree supplies many of the things that they use daily.

Let us examine the home of a native Samoan. The frame and posts of the house are made of the slender trunks of the cocoanut palm, while the roof is covered with its leaves instead of with shingles. The cups, bowls, dippers, and many other household utensils are made of the shells. If a whole shell is wanted, the "eyes" are pushed in, the milk is used, and ants are allowed to eat the meat. These make excellent water bottles. Baskets, curtains, and twine, are made from the fiber of the leaves, and the bark is used for fuel.

From the copra an oil is pressed which is used in the manufacture of soap. It makes a perfectly white soap that will float on the water. It is also used to furnish light, and the people rub it on their bodies to prevent sunburn. The sap of the tree is made into sugar, vinegar, and a liquor.

While in our country the cocoanut is important chiefly to bakers and confectioners, in these far-away islands it is the most useful of plants, and one of the chief articles of food. Would you not like to visit the cocoanut islands and learn more of their interesting people?

A BUNCH OF BANANAS

Every day, as you walk along the streets you see great bunches of bananas hanging in front of fruit and grocery stores. You find them at the corner fruit stand, and peddlers carry them from house to house.

Although bananas are so common now and so cheap that all can afford to eat them, this was not so when your grandparents were children. In those days the fruit was regarded as quite a luxury, for there were few people engaged in carrying it from its tropical home to the cities of our country. Now many small but swift ships, called "fruiters," carry on this business. They get their cargoes of fruit in the West Indies or Central America, and within a week after sailing they are unloading at New Orleans, Baltimore, New York, or Boston. If the number of bananas which reach our country each year were equally distributed, each person would receive twenty-five.

Let us get aboard that wonderful train upon which all may travel free of cost, which runs equally well upon land and water. We step off right in the center of a banana plantation on the island of Jamaica.

Yes, these are banana trees all about you. See how long and broad the leaves are and how gracefully they droop! Some of them are ten or fifteen feet long; almost as long as the trees are tall. The trees, you see, are simply stalks from which the leaves unroll. Here you can see some just starting out. They are rolls of bright green, pointing upward, each starting from the center of the stalk. No, the leaves were not torn in that way by the pickers. The wind sometimes whips them into ribbons, for they are very tender.

These stalks growing from the base of the main stem are called "suckers" here; in Costa Rica they are called "bits." You remember that there are no seeds in bananas. It is these "suckers" that are planted when a farmer wants to start a plantation. They are set out when two or three feet high and within a year they bear fruit. What did I tell you about the length of time required for the cocoanut to bear?

It is but four years since the trees in this plantation were single "suckers," standing about fifteen feet apart. Now there are several stalks grouped about each parent plant, and the beautiful leaves, touching overhead, form shaded aisles of green.

Of course a great number of "suckers" are not allowed to grow together. Keeping these cut down is called "cleaning the plantation."

Now let us examine the fruit on this tree beside us. You see that the great cluster or bunch is made up of smaller bunches. These are called "hands," and each banana is spoken of as a "finger." Let us count the "hands" in this bunch. This is an unusually large one, for it contains thirteen. Nine "hands" make a _full bunch_. As you see, there are from ten to twenty "fingers" in a "hand." Buyers will seldom take bunches of less than six "hands."

Here come the fruit cutters to help get a cargo for the "fruiter" we saw at anchor.

Yes, the bananas are green, I know, and they are always green when gathered. They will ripen in the storehouses when they reach the United States.

No, it is not a waste to cut down the stalks, for they die after bearing their fruit, and the smaller stalks about them will soon yield. Some of these stalks, you see, have but one bunch and some have two or three. How odd the bunches look with the "fingers" all pointing upward!

The banana leaves which the men are wrapping about the bunches are to protect the fruit. It bruises very easily and great quantities are lost on this account. They are not always wrapped, however.

When the fruit reaches the vessel, it is carefully inspected; and if not in just the right condition, it is refused. The bunches which are accepted, are taken into the hold of the ship and packed closely together. The planter receives for these from ten to thirty-five cents a bunch. Just think of buying eight or nine dozen of bananas for ten cents!

The men will not stop work until the ship is loaded. It may take twenty-four hours, and it may take twice that long, for a "fruiter" will carry from fifteen to twenty thousand bunches of fruit.

In some parts of Central America, where there are no harbors, the planters float the fruit down the streams in canoes. The vessels anchor at some distance from the shore, and the bananas are taken out in boats called _dories_. They are hoisted up to the deck of the ship by means of pulleys, and then packed in the hold. The thousands of bunches which are bruised in handling are thrown into the sea.

While the northern ports get most of their supply of bananas from the West Indies, the Pacific coast states are supplied from Central America. The "fruiters" unload at New Orleans into trains, which carry the fruit to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other places. Banana trains also run from New Orleans to St. Louis, Chicago, and other parts of the country.

The fruit ships have great pipes or ventilators, which carry the cool, fresh air from the sea down into the hold. Sometimes when they reach port it is so cold that the bananas cannot be taken out for a few days. Wagons are loaded with the fruit at the wharves, and it is taken to warehouses where it gradually turns yellow. I am sure you have seen loads of the green fruit on the streets.

When the wholesale merchant sells the fruit, he often incloses each bunch in the rough material of which gunny sacks are made, and then puts a light, circular frame, made of strips of wood, over it. This, you see, protects the bananas. The grocer or fruit man takes hold of the frame without danger of mashing the fruit, lifts the bunch, and hangs it upon a hook. The frame and sacking are then removed.

Bananas grow in the tropical parts of Asia and Africa and on many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. They are also raised in Florida, and they ripen in sheltered places in Southern California.

You have seen both yellow and red bananas. The red ones usually bring the higher price, but they do not keep well and are not so extensively raised as the yellow ones.

The banana is an important article of food. It is much more nourishing than potatoes or even good, white bread. A flour or meal can be made from the fruit by drying it and then grinding.

HOW DATES GROW

Three thousand years before the shepherds followed the star to the manger at Bethlehem, the beautiful date palm was cultivated beside the banks of the Euphrates and the Nile rivers. The date was the bread of the people who lived in these fertile valleys, and it is an important article of food in northern Africa, Arabia, and Persia to-day.

Look at a map of northern Africa, and you will see that the great Sahara covers a large part of it. Here and there across the drifting sands wind caravan routes, traveled by camels ridden by strangely dressed men. These routes lead to beautiful garden spots called _oases_. Here are wells and springs, with little streams flowing in the shade of fig, date palm, and other trees. The people who dwell within these groves beside the cooling waters look out upon the desert as the inhabitants of an island might look upon the boundless sea. Find some of these oases and learn why they are fertile. The people who live in these oases depend upon dates for their living. The dreary journey from the coast to the interior is made to procure quantities of this fruit, which are wanted by the outside world.

If you were to make a journey in a desert country, you would find that you could not carry such articles of food as you would have if you remained at home. The sunshine beats down fiercely, the springs and wells are far apart, and the patient animals must not be overloaded. The chief article of food carried is the date. A mass is packed together until it is so hard that pieces are chopped off with a hatchet when they are wanted.

Like the cocoanut palm, the date palm rises to a great height, sometimes fifty or sixty feet, without branches. It ends in a crown of beautiful feathery leaves which droop downward. These leaves may be ten or fifteen feet long. Many of them stand edgewise. Unlike most trees, the trunk does not steadily increase in size, and you can tell nothing as to the age of the tree by its diameter.

In its wild state many shoots spring from the base of the tree. These may grow as high as the parent stalk, so that in time a jungle or thicket is formed.

The flowers, which are clear white, grow in clusters. There are from six to twenty of these clusters on a tree, each of which produces a bunch of dates. The female tree bears the fruit. The blossoms are pollinated both by the wind and by man.

There are from ten to fifteen pounds of dates in a bunch. A tree will average from one hundred to two hundred pounds each year, although trees have been known to yield six hundred pounds. The trees yield when from four to eight years old, and continue to bear for a century.

The dates, green at first, later in the year a yellowish brown, are, when ripe, amber or black in color.

The trees require a very dry, hot climate, but moist soil. Long, long ago, this saying was common among the Arabs, "The date palm, the queen of trees, must have her feet in running water and her head in the burning sky."