TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 817 



during that period. One large estate which in 1910 

 made 2,100 bags, will not this year make more than 

 600 if even so many. Hundreds of trees have com- 

 pletely died out and are now only fit to be cut down 

 and used as firewood. 



I hope, however, that this will not dishearten 

 people, for, after all one exceptionally dry season in 

 43 years cannot be regarded as disastrous to a 

 cultivation which has outlived hundreds of years. 

 With a reasonable amount of moisture, there are 

 still bright days in store for cocoa cultivation which 

 I am sure will justify me in saying that nothing in 

 this colony has progressed and, I hope, will continue 

 to progress, with cocoa, making a great contrast with 

 the Trinidad of Then and the Trinidad of Now. 



A few words more and I conclude this chapter 

 on Cocoa. Compare the export of Trinidad cocoa in 

 1876, two years after my arrival, with that of the pre- 

 sent time. In 1876 it was only 47,885 bags ; in 1910 

 it reached the enormous output of 280,862 bags and 

 in 1911, notwithstanding that it was a bad year it 

 has reached 289,000 bags. This calculation has been 

 made on bags weighing 200 lbs. each. We can 

 therefore, in this item alone, see the tremendous 

 strides which Trinidad has made in its progress and 

 prosperity, as compared with Then. 



