We present an analysis of the octet baryon masses and the πN and KNσ--terms in the framework of heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. At
next-to-leading order, O(q3), knowledge of the baryon masses and
σπN(0) allows to determine the three corresponding finite
low--energy constants and to predict the the two KNσ--terms
σKN(1,2)(0). We also include the spin-3/2 decuplet in the
effective theory. The presence of the non--vanishing energy scale due to the
octet--decuplet splitting shifts the average octet baryon mass by an infinite
amount and leads to infinite renormalizations of the low--energy constants. The
first observable effect of the decuplet intermediate states to the baryon
masses starts out at order q4. We argue that it is not sufficient to retain
only these but no other higher order terms to achieve a consistent description
of the three--flavor scalar sector of baryon CHPT. In addition, we critically
discuss an SU(2) result which allows to explain the large shift of σπN(2Mπ2)−σπN(0) via intermediate Δ(1232) states.Comment: 18 pp, TeX, BUTP-93/05 and CRN-93-0