16 



COCOA 



cocoa cultivation. This fact is well exemplified in 

 Java, in those places where cocoa and coffee are grown 

 up in the mountains. There the average daily tem- 

 perature sinks rapidly with the elevation, and speaking 

 generally, cocoa does not thrive above 1800 feet above 

 sea-level, while coffee is grown successfully on much 

 higher altitudes. Further, it is well known in every 

 Botanical Garden how difficult it is to grow cocoa 

 trees satisfactorily in greenhouses, and how very seldom 

 they flower and give fruit, while this is by no means 

 the case with coffee. 



The monthly maximum and minimum temperatures 

 (shade), in degrees Fahrenheit, of a few well-known 

 cocoa -growing countries, are given in the following 

 table : l 



Rainfall. The humidity of the soil is also of the 

 greatest importance to cocoa. It is of course impossible 

 to state a minimum amount of rainfall which is 

 necessary in order that cocoa may thrive, because so 

 much depends on the depth and the water capacity of 

 the soil. 



1 Wright, Cocoa, p. 15 ; Gold Coast Annual Reports, 1908 and 1909 ; 

 Meteorologische Waarnemingen (Dept. of Agriculture, Suriram). 



