60 THE CACAO UAKA'EST. 





co late and the flour of maize, have rendered accessible to 

 the traveller the table-lands of the Andes, and vast unin- 

 habited forests. 



The cacao harvest is extremely variable. The tree vege- 

 tates with such vigour that flowers spring out even from the 

 roots, wherever the earth leaves them uncovered. It suffers 

 from the north-east winds, even when they lower the tem- 

 perature only a few degrees. The heavy showers that fall 

 irregularly after the rainy season, during the winter months, 

 from December to March, are also very hurtful to the 

 cacao-tree. The proprietor of a plantation of fifty thousand 

 trees often loses the value of more than four or five thou- 

 sand piastres in cacao in one hour. Great humidity is 

 favourable to the tree only when it augments progressively, 

 and is for a long time uninterrupted. If, in the season of 

 drought, the leaves and the young fruit be wetted by a 

 violent shower, the fruit falls from the stem ; for it appears 

 that the vessels which absorb water break from being ren- 

 dered turgid. Besides, the cacao-harvest is one of the most 

 uncertain, on account of the fatal effects of inclement sea- 

 sons, and the great number of worms, insects, birds, and 

 quadrupeds,* which devour the pod of the cacao-tree ; and 

 this brancr of agriculture has the disadvantage of obliging 

 the new planter to wait eight or ten years for the fruit of 

 his labours, and of yielding after all an article of very 

 difficult preservation. 



The finest plantations of cacao are found in the province 

 of Caracas, along the coast, between Caravalleda and the 

 mouth of the Bio Tocuyo, in the valleys of Caucagua, 

 Capaya, Curiepe, and Guapo; and in those of Cupira, 

 between cape Conare and cape TJnare, near Aroa, Bar- 

 quesimeto, Guigue, and Uritucu. The cacao that grows 

 on the banks of the Uritucu, at the entrance of the llanos, in 

 the jurisdiction of San Sebastian de las Beyes, is considered 

 to be of the finest quality. Next to the cacao of Uritucu 

 comes that of Guigue, of Caucagua, of Capaya, and of 

 Cupira. The merchants of Cadiz assign the first rank to 

 the cacao of Caracas, immediately after that rf Socomusco ; 

 and its price is generally from thirty to forty per cent, 

 higher than that of Guayaquil. 



* Parrots, monkeys, agoutis, squirrels, and stags. 



