inSTORV ANIt CULTIVATION OK Till: PLANT. II 



I'Voin llu- Colonial Scries of State Papt-Ts, I^'cl^ruary, i66S, 

 \vc liMriL lliat. "Cocoa was tli(! chief protliice of the Island ol 

 j.iniaica ; neither sugars nor indigo will turn to account nearly sn 

 well; hut in 1671 there was a terrible heat and tlrought which 

 blasted all the Cocoa trees, as well as in San Domingo and Cuba 

 so that the Governor, Sir Thomas Lynch, had great difficulty in 

 sending to ICngland some Cocoa and Vanillas fcjr the King." 



Joseph Acosta (1604). in his " Historic of the I*!ast and 

 West Indies," says: " Tlie Cocoa is a fruiter little less than 

 almonds, yet more fatle. the which being roasted hath ncj ill 

 taste. It is so much esteemed among the Indians (yea, among 

 the Spaniards), that it is oiu; of the richest and the greatest 

 iraffickes of Xew Sjiain. " 



Cocoa Plantations in Mexico must have been of large extent 

 in early times, if we can rely on what Ogelby tells us in his folio 

 volume on America, 1671 : " Xot f.ir from St. lago is a place 

 called Vzaleos. where there are orchards of cocoa, two leagues 

 scjuare, each of them producing yearly as much as 50,000 men can 

 carry." And in speaking of New Spain, he says: "The Knglish 

 Commander, Thomas Candish, coming into the haven Guatalco, 

 burnt 200,000 tun of Cacao ; it proved no small loss to Xew Spain ; 

 ihe provinces of Guatemala antl Nicaragua not jiroducing so much 

 in a whole year." 



This inestimable plant, nameil by Linnaus, Theobroma (from 

 6eoy ami eifiu'fia, the food of gods), is an exergreen which grows 

 to the height of from 15 to 30 feet, with drooping bright green 

 leaves, in shape oblong, eight to twenty-five inches long, and pointed 

 at the ends. The (lowers and fruit, which it bears at all seasons of 



