THE CACAO-TREE. 19 



inquiry it may be safely stated that the 

 average crop of the cocoa plantation at 

 ten years of age, and under a proper state 

 of cultivation, will amount to five hundred 

 or six hundred pounds per acre. 



" The fruit or seed of the cocoa, in form, 

 size, and color, is quite similar to the 

 almond. These seeds, to the number of 

 sixty or eighty, 1 are encased in a pod, 



1 This statement is incorrect. The average number is 

 about twenty-five; the maximum number would not exceed 

 forty. It is curious to note the different statements of those 

 who are regarded as authorities on the subject. Dampier 

 ("A New Voyage round the World") says there are com- 

 monly near a hundred; Thomas Gage ("New Survey 

 of the West Indies ") says there are from thirty to forty; 

 Colmenero (" A Curious Discourse upon Chocolate ") says 

 ten or twelve; Oexmelia ("The History of Adventures ") 

 says ten to fourteen. The French officer, in his "Natural 

 History of Chocolate," says (and says truly), " I can affirm, 

 after a thousand trials, that I never found more nor less than 

 twenty-five. Perhaps, if one were to seek out the largest 

 shells in the most fruitful soil and growing on the most 

 flourishing trees, one might find forty kernels; but as it is 

 not likely one would ever meet with more, so, on the other 

 hand, it is not probable one would ever find less than fifteen 

 except they are abortive, or the fruit of a tree worn out with 

 age in a barren soil, or without culture." 



