For preparing chery the fruits should be spread evenly with a thickness of about 8 cm on clean drying ground. it is desirable that drying is carried out on tiled or concrete floors. Coffee should be stirred and ridged at least once every hour. As in the case of parchment the coffee may be heaped up and covered every day in the evening and spread again the next morning. The cherry is dry when a fistful of the drying cherry rattles when shaken . the cherry should be dried completely at the end of 12 to 15 days in bright weather. Each lot is bagged seperately in new gunnies.

Stripping. After harvesting, some green fruits of coffee may still be clinging to the plants. They are stripped off completely, dried and sent to the curing works seperately. This coffee must be marked and bagged distinctly as strippings.

Stores should be well ventilated and dry. The bags containing dried parchment or cherry should be stored on raised platforms to ensure circulation of air beneath the bags. The parchment and cherry coffee should not be stored together. Other materials like fertilizer etc should not be stored in the same room.

The bagged coffee should be dispatched to the curing works at the earliest possible. The bags must bear labels in respect of their grades, lot numbers and other details with instructions to cure them seperately.

All gleanings and floats should be packed and sent seperately for curing.

Cacao. The cacao plant is a perennial dicotyledonous plant which has been under cultivation since pre-historic times. The centre of origin has been placed in the tropical forests of the Amazon Valley in South America. It is now extensively grown in the continents of Africa, Asia, South America and in parts of North America.

BOTANICAL ASPECTS. Cacao belongs to the family Sterculiacae and has a chromosome number of 2n=20. it is a small evergreen tree growing to a height of about 9 metres when full-grown. The plant has an unusual but characteristic mode of branching. The 2 types of branches are (1)fan or jorquette which is forked into 3, 4 or 5 and (2)'chupon' which arises just below the jorquette and grows to increase the height of the plant.

The leaves are oblong 20-60 cm length and pointed at both ends. The young leaves are bright green or of various shades of red. The chupon type of branch bears its leaves in 3/8 spiral formation. The petiole has a cuspicuous pulvinus facilitating the turning of the leaf in response to photosynthetic stimuli. The stipules of the last-formed leaves of a flush leave scars on the tip. The leaves live through 2 flushes and are dropped from the third length back from the terminal bud so that leaves of 3 distinct ages can be seen on each branch.

Cacao is cauliflorous. Flowers and fruits arise at cushions which were originally leaf axils. The flower is pink to whitish, reguler, hermaphrodite and has 5 sepals, 5 petals, ten stamens in 2 whorls of which only one is fertile and a superior ovary of 5 united carpels. The andrecium consists of 5 long pointed staminodes and 5 fertile stamens which are positioned opposite to the petals. Flower abciss at the constriction at the base of pedicel.

The pollination mechanism in cacao is not well understood. The structure of the flower is unsuitable for pollination by natural agencies. Owing to the lack of nectar, sticky nature of the pollen which prevents wind pollination. Insects are the chief pollinating agency and a certain amount of self pollination is effected by crawling insects. Unpollinated flowers are usually shed.

The fruit is a berry containing 20 to 40 seeds each surrounded by a pulp which is a transformation of the outer integument of the ovule. The outer cells release a highly mucilaginous substance at full growth and is one reason for preventing fermentation of beans after harvesting.

CLIMATE AND SOIL. Cacao is cultivated on commercial scale in the tropical lowlands where the maximum temperature does not fall below 15deg celsius, the absolute min not below 10 deg celsius. The main production centres are confined to 10 deg north and south of the equator. It is grown upto altitudes of 1000 metres where the low temperatures are the limiting factor. The rainfall should be uniform through the year a min of 90 to 100 mm per month is required and an annual precipitation of 1500 to 2000 mm unless supplemented by irrigation. The micro climate is significant. The trees prefer cool moist soil and air around them. The shade requirements are related to the soil nutrient. On a poor soil too much light may affect the yields adversely.

Cacao thrives on a wide range of soil types, with pH ranging from 4.5 to 7. It requires a deep soil. Impervious soils or those with hard substrata are unsuitable. Clayey soils or mixtures of clay and sand are preferable. Ill-drained soils are very inimical to cocao trees. Divalent bases, calcium and magnesium play a significant role in the nutrition of cacao. In India where a monsoonal type of climate exists it is difficult to find ideal locations comparable with those in West Africa. There are a number of relatively small areas in various parts of southern India where conditions are suitable. Normal irrigated land is too expensive for a crop at present. The more suitable areas in southern India are those which get rains during the major part of the year and have a very short dry season in the regions:

CULTIVATION. Cacao is grown in regulated shade. development of one main trunk only is allowed. The trees are grown close so that the foliage forms a canopy to keep the air cool and damp around the trees. Regular weeding before harvesting and removal of unwanted basal 'chupons' is taken up.

NURSERY. fresh beans are to be used for sowing as they lose their viability after the pod is broken. They are planted with the pointed end upwards, sown either in bamboo baskets or polythene bags or raised beds. if sown on raised beds the young seedlings are usually transplanted in containers about 2 weeks after sowing. The seedlings will be in the nursery for 6 to 8 mths before they are transplanted to the main field. Other methods of propogation include grafting, budding and layering.

Cacao can be cultivated as an intercrop in coconut and arecanut gardens. Mixed plantations can be raised on an area 4mx 4m the cacao seedlings occupying the centre of the square or with the normal spacing of 2.7m x 2.7m for area. Pits of 90cm² with compost are used for planting the seedlings. Both require artificial shade during the first one or two hot-weather periods. Banana can be profitably grown as a shade crop during the first 2 years. Subsequently, the shade cast by the arecanut trees will be sufficient for the cacao plants. The cacao plants can be manured with 100g of N, 40g of P₂O₅ and 140g of K₂O per tree annually in 2 split doses. The plantation is irrigated at weekly intervals in the hot months. All the fan branches are cut to a height of one metre from the ground level. This operation is very important for obtaining good yields.

In coconut plantations spaced at about 7.5 metres cacao may be planted either in a single row alternating with coconut or in double rows in triangular positions between the rows of coconut. This crop combination of cacao and coconut has synergistic effect on the yield of both the crops.