24 COCOA 



the water oozes easily. Also, in San Thome, near San 

 Miguel, there are plantations which are often flooded 

 at high tide and where the soil doubtless contains a 

 relatively large amount of salt. 



In these cases the plant has become accustomed 

 to this condition, having been grown on this salt- 

 containing soil from the beginning. If, however, this 

 is not the case, cocoa is very sensible to salt or brackish 

 water. On well-drained and well-embanked plantations 

 in Surinam, where the soil does not contain chloride 

 of sodium or only traces, cocoa is soon injured when 

 brackish water flows into the plantation through a 

 breach in the embankment or otherwise. 



As regards physical composition, it will be obvious 

 that the different cocoa soils show in this respect great 

 differences, and the plant cannot be said to prefer the 

 stony soil of San Thome', the heavy alluvial clay of 

 Surinam or the volcanic, porous soil of the Antilles and 

 Java. 



CONSTITUENTS OF THE TREE AND FRUITS 



Marcano and Cockrane went to the trouble of 

 calculating the weight of different parts of the trees 

 planted on one hectare and the constituents of those 

 parts. The object of this calculation was to ascertain 

 what quantity of the different mineral constituents is 

 taken from the soil, in order to obtain an idea of the 

 amount of the different elements which should be 

 restored by manuring. Though this aim can never be 

 attained by such a calculation (see the discussion on 

 the point in Chapter VI.), some of the figures arrived 

 at by these investigators are interesting enough to be 

 quoted. 1 



Marcano first calculated the weight of the different 

 parts of the tree (stem, branches, leaves, seeds and husks) 

 on one hectare, but his figures are hardly important 



1 Marcano's figures are taken from Jumelle, Le Cacaoyer, pp. 88-91, Cockrane's 

 from Wright, Cocoa, p. 152. 



