68 



COCOA 

 FOREIGN COUNTRIES : PRODUCTION OF EAW COCOA, 1916. 



Brazil 



Ecuador 



San Thom< . . 



San Domingo 



Venezuela . . 



Fernando Po 



Dutch Guiana 



Java 



Haiti 



Cuba 



Belgian Congo 



Other Foreign Countries 



Total, Foreign Countries 



Cwts. 



860,347 



839,606 



652,797 



414,293 



298,760 



65,909 



39,632 



28,949 



36,622 



29,500 



15,152 



176,000 



3,457,567 



You will notice that the British West Indian island 

 of Trinidad is the second largest contributor to our 

 Empire's output of cocoa. The exports from Trinidad 

 steadily increased from about 1,000 tons in 1840 to 

 26,000 tons in 1910, and reached the record quantity 

 of 31,315 tons in 1917. Much of the cocoa is grown by 

 peasant proprietors on small holdings. But there are 

 some large plantations, too, and these are amongst 

 the best-managed estates in the cocoa-producing world. 

 The planters are gentlemen farmers; the labourers 

 include some West Indian negroes, whose fore- 

 fathers came over in the slave ships from West Africa, 

 but the majority of them are East Indian coolie im- 

 migrants. Plants are raised from selected seeds, and 

 carefully tended in nurseries ; seedlings are planted 

 out at equal distances apart, about fifteen feet in all 

 directions being the allotted growing space; crops, such 

 as bananas, are interplanted to afford temporary shade, 

 but however profitable these catch crops may prove they 

 are removed as soon as necessary for the healthy 

 development of the permanent crop ; permanent shade- 

 trees are interplanted at proper distances among the 

 young cocoa ; the cocoa-trees are pruned when they are 



