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mencement as close as the species of Erythrina, some of them have to 

 be removed later, which causes much damage to the cocoa trees. Dr. 

 Preuss saw several Quangos growing in a large sugar plantation in Su- 

 rinam but the Manager told him that it was solely because no shrubs 

 nor bad weeds could grow under them. 



The property which many leguminosse possess, in consequence of 

 their symbiosis with a fungus, of accumulating nitrogen in tubercles 

 which decay at the end of the period of growth and enrich the soil 

 with nitrogen, belongs probably also to thelmmortels and the Quango 

 &c., although the fungus acts principally in soils pour in nitrogen, and 

 such soils are not usually met with in cocoa plantations. These shade 

 trees will not in every case take nitrogen from the soil, because they 

 possess in a high degree the power of borrowing it from the atmosphere. 

 For this reason they take very little nourishment from the cocoa trees. 

 It is necessary as far as possible to choose shade trees from amongst the 

 leguminosse. If this rule has been followed everywhere in the New 

 World without the planters having understood the reason, it is a 

 proof in favour of the truth of the theory, and of the aptitude for ob- 

 servation of the planters. 



Cocoa in Venezuela. 



Cocoa is the most renowned of the products of Venezuela. It is 

 known commercially as Caracas Cocoa, because Caracas was formerly 

 the centre of the trade. At the present time Puerto Cabello, and es- 

 pecially La Guayra have withdrawn the trade to themselves. There 

 are no large plantations in the vicinity of Caracas. The finest and 

 the most numerous plantations are situated near the coast in the States 

 of Carabobi', Guyman Blanc and Lara. The part of the coast between 

 La Guayra and Puerto Cabello is particularly famous. There are 

 i5ituated the valleys of erosion of the coast Cordilleras, abundantly 

 wateied, generally narrow, and separated one from another by high 

 chains of mountains, and in these valleys are found the best cocoa plan- 

 tations. The soil is composed principally of products of disintegration 

 of micaceous schist and gneiss, mixed with an abundant quantity of 

 humus carried down by w ater from the forests situated in the upper 

 part of the mountains. 



The high walls of the valleys protect them against wind. The 

 streams contain abundance of water during the whole year, Ihe soil 

 is of extraordinary fertility; nevertheless the portions that can be culti- 

 vated are lelatively su)all, — they comprise, even when the}^ attain a 

 high figurt', only some hundreds of acres. Immediately beside the 

 black soil of the \ alley, occupied b}' the cocoa plantations, rise the 

 mountains precipitous and entirely barren, poorly furnished with 

 agaves, cacti and stunted bushes, at the foot of which the cocoa planter 

 finds the red earth with which he colours his cocoa. 



Here is the celebrated region of Chuao, of which the cocoa was for- 

 -merly reputed the best in Venezuela, indeed even in the whole world, 

 but which has had to yield the tirst place to new plantations. Another 

 centre of cocoa is at San Felipe, which produces cocoa beans with very 

 thin shell of excellent quality. The cocoa of the coast near E.io Chico 

 is also appreciated. At the south of the lake of Valencia, the region 

 of Guigue on the plateau of Valencia is j^articularly known. Ifc is 



