184 CONSUMPTION OF CACAO. 
bushels, of which the province of Caraccas furnished 
three-fourths. The crops are gathered twice a-year, 
at the end of June and of December. 
Humboldt states, as the result of numerous local 
estimates, that Europe consumes,— 
23,000,000 pounds of cacao, at 12 fr. per ewt.— 27,600,000 fr. 
__ 32,000,000 pounds of tea, at 4 fr. per Ib....... — 128,000,000 
140,000,000 pounds of coffee, at 114 fr. per ewt. 159,000,000 
450,000,000 pounds of sugar, at 54 fr. per cwt.— 243,000,000 
Total value, £23,250,000 sterling, or 558,000,000 fr. 
The late wars have had a very injurious effect on 
the cacao-trade of Caraccas; and the cultivation of 
this article seems to be gradually declining. It is as- 
serted that the new plantations are not so productive 
as the old, the trees not acquiring the same vigour, 
and the harvest being later and less abundant. This 
is supposed to be owing to exhaustion of the land ; 
but Humboldt attributes it rather to the diminu- 
tion of moisture caused by cropping.* 
In concluding his remarks on the province of Ve- 
nezuela, our author gives a general view of the soil 
and metallic productions of the districts of Aroa, 
Barquesimeto, and Carora. From the Sierra Ne- 
vada of Merida, and the Paramos of Niquitao, Bo- 
cono, and Las Rosas, the eastern Cordillera of New 
Grenada decreases so rapidly in height, that be- 
tween the ninth and tenth degrees of latitude it 
forms only a chain of hills, which separate the rivers 
* According to Macculloch, the little use made of this excellent 
beverage in England may be ascribed to the oppressiveness of the 
duties with which it has been loaded, and not to its being unsuitable 
to the public taste. -“ At this moment (May 18381),” he says, 
“ Trinidad and Grenada cacao is worth in bond, in the London mar- 
ket, from 24s. to 65s. a-cwt.; while the duty is no less than 6s., 
being nearly 100 per cent. upon the finer qualities, and no less than 
230 per cent. upon those that are inferior !”—Macculloch’s Dic- 
tionury of Commerce, art. Cacao. ; 
