EXPORT OF CACAO, ETC. 73 



"who will not hesitate to recommend estates to buyers simply for 

 the commission they could get from the seller, and there are 

 others again who will accompany an intending buyer in a 

 friendly way to visit an estate and afterwards attempt to recover 

 an exorbitant fee for their services. Let the investor beware of 

 such or he will probably be landed in a similar plight to that of 

 " Mark Tapley," but it is questionable whether there is •' any 

 credit in being jolly " under such circumstances. Good estates 

 have to be waited for, and are always readily disposed of, so that 

 the buyer should quickly make up his mind when he sees "a 

 thing going," which is fairly in accord with his ideas. 



The yield per acre, or the yield per tree of a Cacao estate is 

 the best test of its value, especially if reliable reference can be 

 made by the seller to the crop harvested for two or three pre- 

 ceding years. Cacao trees begin to bear in the third or fourth 

 years, and sometimes precocious trees will even begin earlier 

 than this, but it is not well to let them produce a crop, as 

 bearing will infallibly retard their growth. 



Dr. Morris writes (Cacao and how to cure it) : — 



At the sixth and on their ninth years, the Cacao tree should be in fair 

 bearing, but they seldom reach their prime before their twelfth or fifteenth 

 year. After this period where the trees have been carefully established 

 and well cultivated, a Cacao estate is a comparatively permanent invest- 

 ment, and it may be expected to continue in bearing and yield remunera- 

 tive returns for some fifty, eighty or a hundred years. In fact, if old and 

 exhausted trees are regularly and systematically replaced or " supplied " 

 there is practically no limit to the duration of a Cacao estate. 



The yield per tree will be seen to depend entirely upon the 

 quality of the land, the size of the tree and various other attend- 

 ant circumstances, but is generally considered that a yield of 

 1-6 as. per tree which will be 10 bags of 165 Rs. each to 1,000 

 trees, is a first-class yield, 5 bags per 1,000 trees or 0-8 Bs. per 

 tree would be considered a poor yield. 



Taking our trees to be planted at 15 feet apart, there will 

 be 193 trees per acre nominally (of course it is never possible to 

 maintain this regularity, on account of roads, drains, &c., but for 

 the sake of method in the estimate we accept this number) and 

 the yield per acre will be 193 x 16 fts. = 308-8 fts. which, valued at 

 -80/- per cwt., will produce the sum of £11 per acre. Calculating 

 the trees at 12 feet apart we get 302 to the acre, and these at 

 I'D Sbs. per tree, the value per acre would be £16 3. 



