CACAO AND ITS CULTIVATION 



37 



Many trees have been used : the saman, bread fruit, 

 mango, mammet, sand box, pois doux, rubber, etc. In 

 the illustration showing kapok acting as a parasol for 

 cacao in Java, we see that the proportion of shade trees 

 to cacao is high. Leguminous trees are preferred be- 

 cause they conserve the nitrogen in the soil. Hence in 

 Trinidad the favourite shade tree is Erythrina or Bois 



COPY OF AN OLD ENGRAVING SHOWING THE CACAO TREE, 

 AND A TREE SHADING IT. 



(From Bontekof's Works.} 



Immortel (so called, a humourist suggests, because it 

 is short-lived). It is also rather prettily named, " Mother 

 of Cacao." Usually the shade trees are planted about 40 

 feet apart, but there are cacao plantations which might 

 cause a stranger to enquire, " Is this an Immortel 

 plantation ? " so closely are these conspicuous trees 

 planted. When looking down a Trinidad valley, richly 

 planted with cacao, one sees in every direction the 

 silver-grey trunks of the Immortel. In the early months 



