26 



CACAO OE COCOA. 



less than 12 by 12; however, to give the present mode the fii-.l benefit of the 

 return, I will adopt, for comparisoQ's sake, the maximnra number of trees ; so 

 that 960 trees per quarree, at 1^ lb. per tree, gives 1,211 lbs. of cacao, at 5 dol- 

 lars per 100 lbs. is worth 60 dollars,* gross return per quarree ; deducting 36 

 dollars, not 80 dollars, for expenses, which leaves 21 dollars per quarree net, or 

 about 7 dollars To cents per acre. 



This is a startling account from lands among the most fertile in the world, 

 and fi'om a plant, under fair treatment, next to the sugar cane, perhaps the most 

 grateful for the care bestowed, more especially when Ave consider that more 

 than ten times that quantity might be obtained with a comparatively insignifi- 

 cant outlay of money. 



If such, then, be the case, as stated in the above report (and it is to be re- 

 gretted that it is too near the truth), apathy on the part of those vrhose interests 

 are so much concerned is unwarrantable. It is not enough to say that our 

 fathers must have knoAvn the proper way to plant cacao ; this is but a lame ex- 

 cuse, and not sufficient to dispense with any exertions of the present generation, 

 beyond merely collecting whatever fruit may come, as it were, fortuitously. 

 Moreover, at the time the present cacao plantations were established in this 

 island, its cultivation was comparatively little known ; it is therefore likely that 

 they might have erred, as they undoubtedly did, in cramming them so close 

 together ; but notwithstanding this, by a proper system of thinning, the evils 

 might have been easily obviated, and large crops ensured. 



A few mornings ago, a cacao planter from Santa Cruz called on me, ar.d in 

 conversation stated that the only place where he had anything like a crop of 

 cacao at present, was where the hunicane of the 11th of October had devastated 

 his estate most severely, and which he at that time considered a ruinous visita- 

 tion. _I hope the lesson will not be lost on him. 



In J amaica it is found necessary to prune the coffee trees yearly, which is 

 done with as much care as gooseberry or currant bushes in England; but, notwitn- 

 standing this, I remember a friend of mine in Jamaica telling me of the extraor- 

 dinary difference on his coffee plantation under the management of ajDerson who 

 understood and attended more particularly to the pruning of his trees. 



Lunan, in his ' Hortus Jamaicensis,' published in 1811, gives a very elaborate 

 at tide on the cacao, although its cultivation vras almost extinct in his day in 

 that island. He, however, appears to have derived his information chiefly from 

 Blume, who wrote a short account of Jamaica, in 1672, at which time cacao 

 was the chief export of the island. Lunan attributes its downfall to heavy 

 ministerial exaction, which was then, he says, upwards of ISO per cent, on its 

 marketable value. Speaking of the average weight of cacao per tree, he has the 

 following : — ' The produce of one tree is generally estimated at about 20 lbs. of 

 nuts. The produce per acre in Jamaica has been rated at 1,000 lbs. weight per 

 annum, allowing for bad years. In poor soils, and under bad management, the 

 produce of the tree rarely exceeds 8 lbs. weight.' He also says — ' When the 

 cacao plants are six months old, the planter from this period must not be too 

 fond of cleaning the plantation from grass and herbage, because they keep the 

 ground cool ; but all creeping, climbing plants, and such weeds as grow high 

 enough to overtop the cacao, should be destroyed.' He gives the distance ircm 

 tree to tree at 18 feet. I have lor.g since been. of opinion that it is of less con- 

 sequence to clean the gi-ound beneath the trees than to attend to the top-pruning 

 of the shade trees, as well as to the cacao (although the former is very desirable, 

 it is nevertheless a subordinate consideration). Under the present mode of cul- 

 tivation the ground-cleaning is the only one at all attended to, and that badly. 



A very important economy might also be made in the curing of the cacao, by 

 which much time would be saved, and consequently expense, by adopting the 

 ?ame method as is used in Jamaica for drying colfee, namely, floorings of cement, 

 or, as they are called, barbecues. At convenient distances in the centre of these 

 floorings (which are inclined planes) a slightly-raised circtflar ridge is formed 

 w^ith cement, leaving an aperture at the lower side to allow the escape of any 

 water that may have lodged in them. The cacao is easily brought together in 



^ Fractional parts are not necessary toiuclaac. 



