Cacao or Cocoa 



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locality, are what it likes most, and these must be found for it in a thoroughly tropical climate. 

 Many parts of the West Indies, although quite tropical, and with sufficient rainfall, are 

 absolutely unsuited to cacao. In Barbados, for instance, although sugar-cane, cotton, and 

 other crops which are regarded as distinctly tropical, can be grown all over the island, there 

 are extremely few places suited to cacao. Strong winds are particularly injurious, and Barba- 

 dos being in the track of the " Trades," it is only in a few sheltered valleys, with other desirable 

 attributes also, that the plant can thrive. Accordingly it is not altogether surprising that 

 amongst the British West Indies we find only Trinidad, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and 



SURINAM. YOUNG CACAO PLANTS SHADED FROM THE SUN 



Dominica figuring in the list of cacao-producing countries. These are all mountainous, well- 

 wooded islands, whilst the more bare and exposed islands such as Barbados, Antigua, etc., 

 are, speaking generally, unfitted for the crop. 



Mr. J. H. Hart, referred to before, in his useful book, " Cacao," says : " The ideal spot in 

 which to found a cacao plantation is a well-sheltered vale, covered with large trees, protected 

 by mountain spurs from the prevailing winds, well watered, and yet well drained, with a good 

 depth of alluvial soil on which rests a thick deposit of decayed vegetable matter; easy of access, 

 and in a district distant from lagoons or marshes for the sake of the proprietor's health. Such 

 a spot in a climate similar to that of Trinidad could not fail to produce regular crops of the 

 finest quality of cacao." 



Planting. The ground having been cleared of the original forest, planting can be proceeded 



