74 



COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 



gained by considering the relative weights of the beans 

 as purchased in England. 



Kind, 



Grenada 

 Para 



Bahia . . 

 Accra . . 

 Trinidad 

 Cameroons 

 Ceylon . . 

 Caracas . . 

 Machala 

 Arriba . . 

 Carupano 



Average weight, 

 of one Bean. 



'o grammes 



o 



'i 



'2 



'2 



'2 



'2 



3 

 4 



6 



Number of Beans 

 to the Ib. 



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 

 ij 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 Ibs., 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 1914 an average 

 yield of over 8 pounds of cacao per tree, and in 1918 



