284 AGRICULTURE. 



cacao-crrowincf ; at least, so far to his own satisfaction that 

 he is himself trying the experiment. He calculates ^ that 200 

 acres, at a maximum outlay of about 11,000 dollars spread 

 over six years, and diminishing from that time till the end of 

 the tenth year, should give, for fifty years after that, a net 

 income of 6,800 dollars; and then "the industrious planter 

 may sit clown," as I heartily hope Mr. Law will do, " and 

 enjoy the fruits of his labour." 



Mr. Law is of opinion that, to give such a return, the cacao 

 must be farmed in a very different way from the usual plan ; 

 that the trees must not be left shaded, as now, by Bois Im- 

 mortelles, sixty to eighty feet high, during their whole life. 

 The trees, he says with reason, impoverish the soil by their 

 roots. The shade causes excess of moisture, chills, weakens 

 and retards the plants ; encourages parasitic moss and insects ; 

 and, moreover, is least useful in the very months in which 

 the sun is hottest, viz. February, March, and April, which are 

 just the months in which the Bois Immortelles shed their 

 leaves. He believes that the cacao needs no shade after the 

 third year ; and that, till then, shade would Ije amply given 

 by plantains and maize set between the trees, which would, 

 in the very first year, repay the planter some 6,500 dollars 

 on his first outlay of some 8,000. It is not for me to give an 



1 "How to Establish and Cultivate an Estate of One ScLuare Mile in 

 Cacao :" a Paper read to the Scientific Association of Trinidad, 1865. 



