CH. IV] COFFEE, CACAO OR CHOCOLATE, KOLA, ETC. 69 



lie to a large extent in scientific treatment. Careful study of 

 the different hybrids is required, and also of the methods of 

 grafting one kind of coffee on another, or possibly even on other 

 members of the same natural family. The successful acclima- 

 tisation of Liberian coffee in Java at high levels, even to 

 3000 feet, by taking the seed up a few hundred feet at each 

 generation, also indicates a line which may be useful in 

 hybridisation. Careful selection of seed of the best bearers 

 both as to quality and as to quantity is also urgently needed, 

 and it is possible that even selection of the quickest bearers 

 might prove of advantage, by producing a breed that would 

 yield a crop earlier than those at present cultivated. Green 

 manuring, agtiin, would probably prove of use. 



Cacao, Cocoa, or Chocolate. The cacao tree, Theobroma 

 Cacao, is probably a native of Venezuela and northern South 

 America, and is still largely in cultivation there, but is now 

 probably almost the most widely cultivated of those tropical 

 products in which there is an export trade. The following 

 figures give the export from different countries for the year 

 1919: 



Gold Coast 176,000 tons Ecuador 40,000 tons 



Other British San Domingo 22,000 



Colonies 70,000 Venezuela 15,000 



Brazil 62,500 Elsewhere 27,000 



St Thomas 46,500 Total 460,500 tons 



These are large figures, but, allowing 7 or 8 acres to produce 

 a ton, it will be seen that they do not represent very large 

 areas. 



The most remarkable feature in this table is the rapid rise 

 to first place of the Gold Coast, which in 1904 was eighth, and 

 now produces about 38 / of the supply. 



The general principles of the cultivation of cacao are much 

 the same in all countries, and therefore the methods followed in 

 Ceylon, whose cacao in general obtains the highest prices, may 

 be described here, with notes on the important points of differ- 

 ence in other countries. 



