COCOA 201 



The Natural Yield of Individual Cacao Trees. 



Planters have for a long time been aware that some 

 cacao trees bear more heavily than others, but in 

 Trinidad I do not think that they had fully realized the 

 extent to which the yield varied until the Department of 

 Agriculture began its investigations in this direction a 

 few years ago. 



In these official records it is shown that the variation 

 is very considerable, and that while some trees yield less 

 that i Ib. of dry cacao, others yield as much as 20 Ib. or 

 25 Ib. or more in a single crop year. It appears also 

 from the records given in Table A (p. 208) that, as a rule, 

 a heavy-bearing tree in one year bears heavily in the 

 following year, and, on the other hand, that some trees 

 give small yields in two successive years. If the records 

 of future years are similar, the question of retaining in 

 cultivation trees that give a low and unprofitable yield 

 will have to be carefully considered. 



The table shows the yield for two consecutive years, 

 under ordinary estate cultivation, of 100 adjacent healthy 

 trees in a fairy good field, giving in a year of normal 

 rainfall a yield of 16 bags (of 165 Ib. each) per 1,000 

 trees. The proportion of trees giving a low yield in this 

 lot of 100 is not large. In other fields the proportion is 

 somewhat larger, and in neglected cultivations it may 

 be expected to be very much larger. In one very extra- 

 ordinary case, reported in the Bulletin of the Department 

 for October, 1913, a field of approximately 2,000 trees, 

 remarkable for the almost entire absence of the ordinary 

 " cushions," yielded annually, according to the manager's 

 statement, only about 25 Ib. of dry cacao. There can be 

 no doubt that the yield of cacao trees, even when in a 

 healthy condition and grown on a fairly good soil, varies 

 very considerably. This may be due to a want of care 

 in former years in the selection of the seed. 



In Table B (p. 209) the percentage of trees giving not 

 more than 2 Ib. of cacao annually per tree is shown. 

 These trees are in experimental plots now receiving 

 manurial treatment. The percentage is high, but allow- 

 ance must be made for the age (12 years) of these trees. 



