AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY OF CACAO 197 



Calabacillo to produce an equal weight of cured, cacao, 

 hence the return to the soil by the husks is more than 

 twice as great in the case of the former as in that of the 

 latter. 



Assuming that the average yield here of the variety 

 Calabacillo is 250 lb. and that of Forastero 150 lb. of cured 

 cacao per acre respectively, we find that the amounts of 

 the constituents of plant food removed from the land 

 annually in the whole fruit, returned to the soil in the 

 husks and either sold in the cured cacao or lost in the 

 sweatings from the fermenting boxes are as follows : 



POUNDS PER ACRE PEE ANNUM 



Professor Harrison here makes a note of considerable 

 importance to the grower, in the weights required of the 

 two varieties to produce an equal weight of cured cacao. 

 This arises from the very much larger weight of the shells 

 of the pods in Forastero ; a greater amount of waste 

 material being produced. 



The unavoidable loss per acre in British Guiana as 

 compared with that in Venezuela given by Marcano, and 

 with that in Guadeloupe reported by Boname is given on 

 next page. 



There is a general concordance in these results showing 

 the low amounts of constituents necessarily removed from 

 the soil in the production of a crop of cacao. 



