PICKING AND HARVESTING 137 



flavour, but if the market demands at times a lower scale 

 of preparation, it may possibly be to the interest of the 

 producer to supply the quality which is in demand, 

 whatever the ideal may be as to superior or inferior quality, 

 but he should nevertheless not lose sight of the fact that 

 a superior article is always saleable, while an inferior 

 article has at times to suffer in price for the want of a buyer. 



The quality of cacao, however, depends much more 

 largely upon the special kinds or variety grown than upon 

 the quality of the land or the amount of preparation it 

 receives. Of course, preparation can be well done and 

 badly done ; but, given a bad class of cacao, no preparation 

 whatever could ever make it a first-class sample ; it might 

 make it better, but never first class. For instance, all the 

 knowledge of preparation available in Trinidad would not 

 suffice to make a sample of ordinary Trinidad cacao into 

 a sample which could be identified with that of Ceylon or 

 Java, for the reason that the class of cacao itself is essen- 

 tially different ; and per contra, it would puzzle the Ceylon 

 planter to turn out a sample to match that of the best 

 Trinidad unless on estates where the Forastero variety has 

 been introduced ; and Trinidad could only turn out a 

 sample like the Ceylon produce by growing the exact strain 

 (Old Red Dutch) which produces that class of cacao. In 

 the same way no one could possibly produce a sample 

 of cacao in the West Indies from the ordinary culti- 

 vated forms, which could compare with that produced by 

 Nicaraguan or Venezuelan CrioUos ; for they are entirely 

 different in character, and the beans are larger, better 

 coloured, and higher flavoured. 



The latter varieties are now being cultivated, however, 

 and supplies are being sought for further extension, which 

 up to the present have been obtained from the original 

 consignment introduced by the author in 1893. It will, 

 however, be some years before clean samples of these kinds 

 can be available for export, as the tendency is to plant 

 them mixed with other kinds, and thus, although they will 

 infuse certain new strains to Trinidad stocks, the pure 



