74 



COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 



gained by considering the relative weights of the beans 

 as purchased in England. 



Number of Beans 

 to the lb. 



45 



45 

 410 



380 



380 



380 



380 



35 



33 



300 



280 



The Yield of the Cacao Tree. 



The average yield of cacao has in the past generally 

 been over-stated. Whether this is because the planter 

 is an optimist or because he wishes others to think his 

 efforts are crowned with exceptional success, or be- 

 cause he takes a simple pride in his district, is hard to 

 tell. Probably the tendency has been to take the finer 

 estates and put their results down as the average. 



Of the thousands of flowers that bloom on one tree 

 during the year, on an average only about twenty 

 develop into mature pods, and each pod yields about 

 1 1 ounces of dry cured cacao. Taking the healthy 

 trees with the neglected, the average yield is from i\ 

 to 2 pounds of commercial cacao per tree. This seems 

 very small, and those who hear it for the first time 

 often make a rapid mental calculation of the amazing 

 number of trees that must be needed to produce the 

 world's supply, at least 250 million trees. Or again, 

 taking the average yield per acre as 400 lbs., we find 

 that there must be well over a million acres under cacao 

 cultivation. At the Government station at Aburi (Gold 

 Coast) three plots of cacao gave in 19 14 an average 

 yield of over 8 pounds of cacao per tree, and in 19 18 



