158 CONSUMPTION OF CACAO. 



twelve fanegas annually. It appeared probable, that 

 from 1800 to 1806 the yearly produce of the cacao- 

 plantations of the capitania-general of Caraccas was 

 at least 193,000 fanegas, or 299,200 bushels, of which 

 the province of Caraccas furnished three-fourths. 

 The crops are gathered twice a year, at the end of 

 June and of December. 



Humboldt states, as the result of numerous local 

 estimates, that Europe consumes, — 



23,Ono,000 pounds of cacao, at 12 fr. per cwt.= 27,600.000 fr. 



32,000.000 pounds of tea, at 4 fr. per lb =128,000,000 



140,000,000 pounds of coffee, at 1 14 fr. per cwt.= I59,000.000 

 450,000,000 pounds of sugar, at 54 fr. per cwt.=243,000,000 



Total value, 23,250,00OZ. sterling, or 558,000,000 fr. 



The late vicars have had a very injurious effect on 

 the cacao-trade of Caraccas ; and the cultivation of 

 this article seems to be gradually declining. It is as- 

 serted that the new plantations are not so productive 

 as the old, the trees not acquiring the same vigour, 

 and the harvest being later and less abundant. This 

 is supposed to be owing to exhaustion of the land ; 

 but Humboldt attributes it rather to the diminution 

 of moisture caused by cropping.* 



In concluding his remarks on the province of Vene- 

 zuela, our author gives a general view of the soil 

 and metallic productions of the districts of Aroa, 

 Barquesimeto, and Carora. From the Sierra Nevada 

 of Merida, and the Paramos of Niquitao, Bocono, 

 and Las Rosas, the eastern cordillera of New-Gre- 

 nada decreases so rapidly in height, that between 

 the ninth and tenth degrees of latitude it forms only 



* Accnrdinff to Maccnllocli, the little u.se made of this excellent beve- 

 rage in England may be ascribed to the oppressiveness of the duties 

 ■with which it has been loaded, and not to its being unsuiiable to the 

 public taste. "At this moment {May, 1831)," he says, " Trinidad and 

 Grenada cacao is worth in bond, in the London market, from 24s. to 65s, 

 a cwt. ; while the duty is no less than 05.s., being nearly 100 per cent, 

 upon the finer qualities, and no less than 230 per cent, upon those thai 

 are inferior '." — Maccullocfi's Dictionary of Commerce, art. Cacao. 



