THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [Aug. 1, 1901. 
" Worked " firsts brought lid to Is 6d, seconds 9d 
to Is 5d, thirds Is Id to Is 4d and fourths VJd to lid 
per lb. 
" Unworked " firsts sold at 9d to is ; seconds, 8d to 
lOid, thirds 7^d to lOd, fourths 7^d to 9^ per lb. 
Of about 850 bags chips &c,, only a few bags sold 
at 2jd per lb. for coarse. 
Wild Cinnamon.— About 212 bales and 578 bags 
were offered and passed without bide. Present stocks 
3,l'i7 bales Ceylon, 2,666 bales " wild." 3,515 bales 
chips and 8,373 balesSof wild bark, &c. 
The next sales will be held 28th August, 
« — . 
PLANTING IN TRINIDAD. 
CACAO— RUBBER- COCON UTS. 
From " Trinidad and its Future Possi- 
bilities," — a paper read by bir Hubert Jerming- 
hani, ex Governor, before tlie Royal Colonial 
Institute, we quote : — 
Trinidadians liave every reason to take time by 
the forelock, for they possess a soil which can grow 
anything and every tiling. The cacao trade, which 
comes next in importance to the sugar trade, is one 
which, however remunerative, does not give work to 
many hands, though fortunately it is one in which 
the native Creoles take an interest, and the coolies 
are beginning to invest their savings. It is a trade 
which flourished in Trinidad up to 1827, when, 
owing to the fall in prices, it gradually dwindled to 
nothing, until in 1856 there were no more than 7,0G0 
acres under cultivation. As the average yield per 
acre is 600 lb, or 2 lb per tree, some idea of the de- 
velopment it has now reached can be gathered from 
the fact that there are at the piesent time nominally 
498 cacao estates, yielding 173,000 bags, or 29 million 
pounds of cacao, hence reproenting some 48,000 
acres under cultivation. It is estimated that the 
coht of production of a bag of cacao containing 165 
lb is 34s, while the sale price average for the last 
two years has been 75s a bag, representing a total 
of more than £600,000, of which half was clear profit 
and half was expended in the Colony. The demand 
is so much on the increase that prices maintain 
themselves in spite of accumulations and of old 
methods of growth ; and the providential dispensa- 
tion which places Trinidad outside the hurricane 
zone is also the guarantee of her future prosperity 
from this one article, if she had no other to rely on; 
but a great impulse has been given within the last 
three years to tlie cultivation of rublier, and this 
important article of commerce is expected to rank 
eventually as oneof the most remunerative of the 
Colony's resources. Thanks to a Swedish Professor 
of botany and natural history, Professor Bovallius 
of ihe University of Upsala, who was introduced to 
me by letter from the Secretary of Stale, 1 modestly 
hope that I have had a slight share in the impetus 
given to this new industry from which so much is 
expected. 
Professor Bovallius assured me that he had not 
seen along the Orinoco river any land better suited 
to the growth of Hevea or Castilloa than that which 
Trinidad afibrds, and he has since proved his con- 
fidence in the soil by the purchase of some 4,(j00 
acres of Government land and the launching of the 
Narva Estates Co., Ltd., for the cultivation of 
rubber, cacao, and indigenous products. 
I wish 1 had the time to explain to you how these 
eblates,situaLed in, 1 think, the loveliest parts of the 
island, and selected with the greatest care and 
knowledge, are expected to give returns in the 
eighth year, when the rubber-trees yield their milk, 
which are simply astounding to one who, like my- 
self, has no money to invest. 
But as the company is formed on what, I think, 
is the safest basis of investment in land, when the 
investor does not reside on the spot, viz., on a syndi- 
cate system, in which dividends are pMdpro rata of 
the shares held after a lapse of hall the time neces- 
sary for the produce plants to bear, it may be use- 
ful to point out that, in the case of a rubber plan- 
tation, which takes eight years, the coconut trees, 
the bearing c^cao trees, the hardwood and the corn 
are made to pay full interest on the capital for four 
years, and a dividend after. On the Narva Estate, 
for instance, I see by the prospectus that at the 
start there are sixty acres of bearing cacao^ equiva- 
lent to £1,200 a year, and coconut trees yielding 
nuts worth £750 ; while hardwood is expected to re- 
alise £400, and fifty aeies of corn a further £200, 
in all £2,550, which is more than necessary to pay 
8 per cent on the gross capital of the company in 
question, viz. £25,000 : that this revenue increases 
to £3,000 the second year, £3,450 the third year, 
£4,800 the fourth year, and lo £7,300 the fifth year, 
owing to enlarged acres of both bearing cacao and 
coconut tiecB. In the fifth year it exceeds.by £2,600 
the cost of working the estate in that year, that 
cost, inclusive of interest, being estimated at 
£3,475 the first year, £3,930 the second year, £4,360 
the third year, £4,915 the fourth year, and about 
the same in the fifth. 
However correct these figures may be, they are 
so far reliable that, provided the cacao trees are 
bearing as well as the coconnt trees, 8 per cent 
interest on capital is secure, though a deficit on 
working expenses, averaging £70U a year for four 
years, is expected. 
But in the tif i h year the balance of revenue covers 
that deficit and a dividend of 9 per cent becomes 
possible. The prospectus after that becomes aggres- 
sively alluring. Before the rubber adds its luO per 
cent, the sixth year gives a dividend of 33 per cent, 
and the seventh year 44 per cent, and, although I 
am not quite capable of understanding such high 
profits, there is no reason, with the prices which 
cacao and rubber command, that this should not be 
realised, seeing especially that cacao is daily be- 
coming more popular throughout the world as a 
nutritive beverage, and the demand for pure rubber 
is far in excess of the supply ; and it will be inter- 
esting to note when the time comes how wise they 
have been who have asked of the soil and vegeta- 
tion of Trinidad for returns equivalent to those of 
the best minerals elsewhere. 
I have mentioned coconuts, and most people do 
not realise their value in the economy of nature. 
In Trinidad these trees thrive particularly well, 
and especially so in the district of Mayaro, where 
the finest cocal, or coconut walk has curiously 
planted itself from nuts originally cast ashore from 
a wrecked vessel. 
These trees bring forth a bunch of nuts every 
month, and the bunches average nine nuts each. 
Sixty good nuts go to a gallon of oil, and this 
gallon averages $1, or 4s 2d. The yearly value of 
a coconut tree is iheretore roughly set down at 
fl, from which it .viil be seen that 9,600 coconut 
trees are sufficient of themselves to pay £2,000 in- 
terest, at 8 per cent, on £25,000. 
In 1899 some 13,000,000 nuts were exported, re- 
presenting 118,000 trees at least, and £45,000. As 
there are sixty nominal coconut estates in Trini- 
