14 COCOA 



CHAP. 



In the tropical parts of South and Central America, 

 and more especially in the coast region of the continent 

 and in the Antilles, cocoa has been grown for several 

 centuries and is found growing wild in many places. 

 How the cultivation has spread and developed in this 

 part of the world and how it was conveyed to Africa 

 and Asia, has been described in Chapter I. , but only the 

 most important cocoa-growing countries were mentioned. 

 A more complete list of these countries is now given, 

 though several of them are of no importance from a 

 commercial point of view. The countries where only a 

 few trees have been planted as an experiment have been 

 omitted from the list. 



Central America. Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador. 

 Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama. 



South America. Pacific coast : Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia. 

 Caribbean and Atlantic coast : Venezuela, Surinam (Dutch Guiana), 

 Brazil (the States of Para, Maranhao, Bahia arid Pernambuco). 



Antilles. Cuba, Haiti and San Domingo, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, 

 Martinique, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad, 

 Tobago. 



Africa. San Thome, Principe, Fernando Po, Gold Coast, 

 Togo, Lagos, Kamerun, Belgian Congo, German East Africa, 

 Madagascar, Reunion. 



Asia. Ceylon, Indo-China, Philippines, Java, Samoa. 



Temperature. Cocoa can only be grown in the 

 tropics, for it is very particular about temperature and 

 soon suffers from cold. In most countries it takes 

 harm when the temperature falls below 60 F. (about 

 15 C.), or at any rate when this happens repeatedly. 

 It is thus essentially a tropical plant ; it will not grow 

 in the sub-tropics, and is only found in countries situated 

 between 20 north and 20 south latitude. 



In this respect it is more exacting than coffee 

 (Coffea arabica), though the two plants are very 

 similar in regard to other conditions of cultivation. 

 Coffee, however, can stand a cool climate better, and it 

 is therefore possible to grow it in latitudes where cocoa 

 cannot thrive for instance, in Brazil above 20 

 southern latitude, and in Africa north of the limit of 



