JAMAICA. 

 BXJLLETIlSr 



OF THE 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. I. APRIL, 1903. Part 4. 



COCOA IN TRINIDAD AND GRENADA. 



Notes from Dr. Paul Preuss. 



In 1884 Kamerun became a German Colony. For nine or ten years 

 Cocoa was planted only in a small way, but in 1896, a commencement 

 was made of Cocoa plantations on a large scale. The soil and climate 

 was all that could be wished, and the trees grew in a satisfactory manner, 

 but the cured Cocoa did not get as high a price as was hoped. Re- 

 searches were carried out, but with no satisfactory results. The surest 

 and the quickest way to arrive at a solution of the question was to go 

 and examine on the spot the methods of culture and preparation in 

 the West Indies and Central and South America, where it has been 

 longest cultivated and with the best results, to study there dif- 

 ferent species of Cocoa and their conditions of development, and to 

 import into the German Colonies those species which are the most pro- 

 fitable and the most suitable. With this aim Dr. Preuss was commis- 

 sioned to travel in Surinam, Trinidad, Grenada, Venezuela, Ecuador, 

 Nicaragua, Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico. 



The account of his travels and the results of his mission are presented 

 in his Report entitled, " Expedition nach Central and Siid-Amerika," 

 published in Berlin by the Kolonial Wirtschaftliches Komitee : the 

 second part of which has been translated into French, and published 

 by the Societe d' etudes coloniales de Belgique under the title " Le Cacao, 

 sa culture & sa preparation " 



Notes from this valuable treatise will appear from time to time in 

 this Bulletin, 



Shade. — The distance of the plants is generally 14 feet for the cocoa 

 trees and 28 feet for the shade trees. In many plantations the dis- 

 tances are 10 to 12 feet, but these are gradually being given up, and 

 planters are adopting 14 by 16, or 16 by 16 feet. The distance of 

 the shade trees from one another varies with that of the cocoa trees, 

 being in the proportion of one shade tree to two cocoa trees. Dr. 

 Preuss had long discussions with the Trinidad planters on the subject 

 of the shade being too dense, but they maintained that it was neces- 

 sary. As proof, they told him that cocoa trees ceased to yield when- 

 ever their shade trees were blown down. Moreover, they informed 

 him that tormerly when less shade trees were planted, the cocoa trees 

 dried up by the hundred in years of great drought. Dr, Preuss, in 

 his journey through the best cocoa districts of Trinidad, saw evidence 

 that the trees had suffered much from drought, and that a great nurn- 

 ber had died in spite of the thickness of the shade. What was said 

 then about the ruin by drought of entire cocoa plantations thatj,were 



