[9] To make cocoa in perfection, for three breakfast-cups: in a quart jug (with rounded bottom and narrower neck by preference) mix 1 1/2 dessert spoonfuls (3/4 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 3/4 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.]