AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY OF CACAO 181 



one different from the other, though bearing a family 

 likeness to certain types. 



The writer does not quite follow Wright when he states 

 that: 



Experience on an estate where caoaoisgrown willconvinceonyonc(itaUc8, the 

 writer's) that the ohemioal constituents of the same variety of cacao are liable 

 to a considerable amount of variation, according to the nature of the soil, 

 the age of the trees, and their condition of vigour. In any one country where 

 cacao has been long cultivated, different seeds in the same fruit from a Caracas, 

 Nicaraguan, or Forastero tree will vary to an extent which is often surprising. 



That they do vary in the way described is an undoubted 

 fact, but the present writer attributes the cause more to 

 the interbreeding of cultivated varieties, than to influence 

 of soil, age, or cultivation. 



Wright also says : 



The cacao exported from any district is composed of needs of innumerable 

 varieties, and although that from each country may tend to become more or 

 less uniform year by year, the variations during a single year or in successive 

 years (italics, the writer's) must be sufficiently great as to seriously afiect the value 

 of a chemical teat as a means of determining the actual variety or country 

 of export. 



With respect to the last quotation, the author may say 

 that he has failed to observe any material change in the pro- 

 duce of single trees from year to year, but can fully confirm 

 the statement that " cacao exported from any district is 

 composed of seeds of innumerable varieties." It could not 

 possibly be otherwise, all being seedling varieties, and it 

 certainly represents the conditions present in all the cacao- 

 growing countries which the writer has personally visited. 



The fact is, the number of varieties which exist would 

 keep all the chemists now living, and as many more, fully 

 employed for life, to test every variety of cacao now grown, 

 and this alone proves the absolute uselessness of the 

 attempt, and shows that, until standard varieties of the 

 best types are secured by selection methods, the analysis 

 of the cacao bean is not likely to show greater results 

 than are already shown by Harrison's work, a point with 

 which the writer has reason to believe Professor Harrison 

 is in full accord. 



At the present time the manufacturers probably know 



