YIELD, VALUE AND PRICES OF CACAO 227 



The facility with which pods hang for a time upon the 

 trees without hazarding quality assists generally the 

 economy of the harvest work. 



To return to Brown's table of yield, we find the average 

 for the year was 151'4 pods, and taking ten pods as equal 

 to 1 lb. of dry cacao we have an average yield per tree of 

 over 15 lb. By extending these proportions we calculate 

 bags per 1000 trees, and find that it amounts to 15,000 lb. 

 or 90-9 bags of 165 lb. per 1000 trees. An ordinary yield 

 is calculated from 10 to 15, but some report crops of from 

 20 to 25 bags per 1000. It has been recently reported 

 in Trinidad that yields of 25 to 30 bags have been obtained, 

 an enormous increase over the old first-class average.* 



From the evidence contained in Brown's table and from 

 our own observations of crops it becomes apparent that 

 we are dealing with grave possibilities which should 

 receive the most earnest attention of all classes of culti- 

 vators. In the author's opinion the greatest progress will 

 be attained by those who cultivate selected standard 

 varieties which have been proved good croppers, securing 

 such by the means indicated in preceding pages. 



Sir Daniel Morris, writing in 1882, says : 



At the sixth aiui 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 investment, and it may be expected 

 to continue in bearing and yield remunerative returns for some fifty, eighty, 

 or a hundred years. In fact, if old and exhausted trees are regdarly and 

 systematically replaced or " supplied " there is practically no limit to the 

 duration of a cacao estate. 



This statement is quite accurate, as there are many 

 such estates in Trinidad and other parts of the West 

 Indies, although a few theorists may dispute the pomt 

 on technical grounds, which deny permanent fertilitv. 

 The fact, however, should not be overlooked that many 

 such estates, with liberal treatment in the supply of 

 suitable manures, may be made to show a much larger 



* See " Possible Yield of Q$,oax>," in Bulletin, Agricultural Information 

 Trinidad, July 1909, p. 65. 



