112 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



top, and pointed below, the point being curved to one side. 

 The skin was of a yellowish red colour, it had ten furrows, 

 and the ridges were tuberculated or warty. On opening 

 the pod, the skin or shell was found to be brittle and thin, 

 not being more than from four to five eighths of an inch 

 The number thick. There Were 38 seeds, two being small and inferior, 

 and the remaining 36 were full, round and plump, measuring 

 about an inch and a quarter in length, by nearly three 

 quarters of an inch in breadth. On cutting open one of 

 the seeds longitudinally, the plumule and the radicle and a 



of seeds. 



POD OF CRIOLLO CACAO GROWN IN DOMINICA. 



The seeds 

 white inter- 

 nally. 



Caraccas 

 cacao. 



portion of the cotyledons were milky white, and at the upper 

 margins the cotyledons were of a light pinkish colour. On 

 chewing the seed the taste was nutty and slightly bitter with 

 the distinct cacao flavour. The saliva was tinged of a 

 pinkish, and not of a purplish colour as when a bean of the 

 common cacao is chewed. This was a pod of the real 

 Criollo cacao, one of the best kinds known, and as the other 

 varieties approach it in type, so are they better in character 

 and their produce more valuable in the markets. 



The best 

 soils. 



Soil. — The cacao tree has a long tap root and it must, 

 therefore, be planted in deep soil. The best soil of all is 

 that occurring in valleys and undulating lands, along the 

 banks of rivers or streams, and made by the decomposition 

 of volcanic rocks. It will also grow well in loams and the 

 richer marls, but it will not thrive in stiff,, heavy clays. 



