COCOA-GROWING COUNTRIES 355 



agree with this view. But it is at any rate not done 

 to any extent in Trinidad or any of the other Antilles. 



In Chapter VI. we have discussed the question why 

 cocoa can be grown in Grenada without shade trees 

 and why planters there prefer that method, while in 

 hardly any other country is this the case except in 

 Brazil and San Domingo. 



As explained in that chapter, I do not consider the 

 conditions of climate of Grenada exceptional in any 



FIG. 114. Cocoa field without shade, Grenada. 



way. The rainfall is not heavier than in the majority 

 of other countries, amounting to about 2000 mm. per 

 annum ; and we have no reason to suppose that the 

 sunlight is there less intense. 



In my opinion, however, the use of shade trees is 

 not in the first place the affording of shade to the trees, 

 but the improving of the soil, by shading it, giving it 

 humus by the fallen leaves and flowers, by adding 

 nitrogen to the soil in fact, influencing the soil in the 

 same way as green dressing does. These views have 

 been fully explained in Chapter VI. 



