COCOA. 



9 



little fermentation, as it is naturally of a much finer flavour, but its 

 produce is small, and the tree is said to be a slow bearer, and easily 

 destroyed by disease or bad weather.* 



So many new cocoa walks have been planted, and small established 

 ones enlarged in the last three or four years, that the supply in a year 

 or two should much more than balance the falling off in exhausted 

 plantations. A considerable amount of good fresh land has of late 

 been taken up for, and laid down in, cocoa in the country south of and 

 between Arima and the East coast — sufficient to enable planters to 

 keep pace with the increasing consumption at home. They are com- 

 mencing to plant the cocoa tree in the East Indies, but it will be 

 some years before a crop is reaped, and whatever is gathered will, 

 for many years, suffice only for eastern consumption, including that 

 of Australia. Jamaica is talking of reviving her long-abandoned 

 cacao cultivation, and Dominica will do well to follow her example, 

 having rich soil in sheltered dells, well adapted, to all appearance, to 

 favour this delicate plant. But the islands to the north of Trinidad 

 must take into their calculation a risk from which that island and 

 Grenada are almost free — that of hurricane blasts. The quality of 

 Trinidad cacao maintains its reputation. We hear of extensive irriga- 

 tion improvements on Mr. Needham's fine property at the head of 

 Santa Cruz, well known as San Antonio. 



Exports from Trinidad. — In Trinidad cocoa is the second great 

 staple of production, and although the annual crop necessarily 

 fluctuates, according to weather and favourable seasons, yet it will be 

 seen the shipments have doubled in the last quarter of a century. 

 The following figures give the annual export crops : 



Lbs. 



1851 5,552,437 



1852 6,823,695 



1853 4,904,719 



1854 3,379,159 



1855 4,547,060 



1856 4,575,000 



1857 4,942,600 



1858 5,403,600 



1859 5,893,400 



1860 4,135,921 



1861 6,530,906 



1862 3,849,223 



Lbs. 



1863 7,484 



.. 5,090 

 .. .. 6,760 



1864 .. .. 



1865 .. .. 



1866 5,991 



1867 8,016 



1868 7,614 



1869 6,389 



1870 7,470 



1871 6,422 



1872 7,182 



1873 9,238 



1874 11,191 



,941 

 ,017 

 ,287 

 ,673 

 ,237 

 ,947 

 ,022 

 ,028 

 ,038 

 ,404 

 ,141 

 ,431 



Taking decennial periods the shipments have been as follows : 



1821 1,214,093 



1831 1,888,852 



1841 2,493,302 



Lbs. 



1851 5,552,437 



1861 6,530,906 



1871 6,422,038 



There is a singular discrepancy between the returns of shipments, 

 s published by the Colonial Office, which I have given above in detail 

 from the twelfth number of the ' Statistical Abstract for the several 

 Colonial Possessions,' and those published in the island papers, for 



* The late Mr. Herman Cruger, Colonial botanist, in the Trinidad Catalogue of 

 Products shown at the London International Exhibition, 1862. 



