TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF THE 



CEYLON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. XXXIX. COLOMBO, SEPTEMBER 15th, 1912, No. 3. 



NICARAGUAN OR PANAMA CACAO AT THE 

 EXPERIMENT STATION, PERADENIYA. 



The following report from London Brokers received in reply to an 

 inquiry made by the Director of Agriculture will be of interest to readers 

 of the Tropical Agriculturist :— 



Dear Sir, — Referring to your letter of 25th May, we now have the 

 pleasure to give you Brokers' report on the sample of Cocoa, as under : — 



'"Fine to good Panama kind. If properly sized and not mixed with 

 Ceylon plantation beans it would be worth about 100s. to 105s. per cwt. 



" The sample, being mixed with small Ceylon plantation beans, would 

 not fetch its real value it. the present state. If properly sized and 

 even bold it would sell very well. The bold beans are of fine break and 

 even brown colour. The small red beans are of ordinary 2nd size 

 plantation Ceylon kind of mixed break, and by themselves valued at 

 about 72s. to 73s per cwt." 



We enclose samples of the two kinds which ought to be kept separate. 



Yours faithfully 



Gray, Dawes & Co. 



London July 1st, 1912. 



The variety of Cacao here referred to was received through the 

 Government of Trinidad in 1895 under the name of Criollo or Cacao del 

 Pays of Nicaragua. Thirteen trees bearing pods of three very distinct 

 types were planted in the Peradeniya Botanic Gardens towards the end 

 of the same year. The trees produced good crops in 1903-04 and in 1905 two 

 acres of land were planted from their seed at the Experiment Station, 

 Peradeniya, by Mr. Herbert Wright at the suggestion of the present 

 writer. 



The Nicaraguan Cacao at the Experiment Station. 



This is now in bearing, and appears to have come quite true to the 

 parental type. The plots unfortunately include a number of other types 

 inadvertently planted amongst the true Nicaraguan, and it is to these 



