VERTEUIL — TRINIDAD AGRICULTURE. 223 
plants growing in good vega soil, but they are not very forward. 
They appear to be delicate and their growth is decidedly slower 
than that of any of our varieties, or of those imported from 
Venezuela. I doubt whether they will be useful, except as 
hybridisers to our local and Venezuelan kinds. 
It may be said that there are two qualities of cacao intro- 
duced in Trinidad, estate and conuquero cacao. The preparation 
of the latter leaves much to be desired though it receives some 
further treatment in merchant’s stores before shipment, and it 
will probably continue defective until central drying houses are 
established, in which the raw beans purchased from the small 
growers could be cured on improved methods. 
Greater care is being given to the preparation of the article 
than ever before, and estate marks are being brought to a level. 
The twenty or thirty shillings difference that existed between 
San Antonio and Soconusco and other brands is now reduced to 
three and four shillings, and several other estates are obtaining 
the same price as these two favorite marks. Indeed it is not 
certain that the difference which now exists between the several 
estate marks is not due to greater garbling, by which two 
qualities are prepared, the inferior selling at much reduced value, 
rather than to intrinsic superiority. Owners of estates pay 
great attention to fermentation, and year after year we find 
modifications introduced with the object of attaining excellence. 
Artificial drying has also been introduced, not always with 
success, I fear, but out of the numerous trials made, a sure and 
economic method will probably be discovered. So far the best 
dryer has been King Sol, and it is only when he refuses to shine 
that science is allowed a trial. A full extent of drying space is 
an absolute necessity, and we seldom hear of weathered cocoa 
on estates where there is plenty of drying space. It is the same 
as in the days of muscovado, when the planter wjth most megass 
houses and the best supply of megass made the best sugar and 
molasses. 
Greater attention has also been paid to the cultivation of 
ite. This was a natural consequence of owners un ei taking 
ie management of their properties in person Overseers with 
>me knowledge are employed in lieu of uneducated peons o 
rivers, and there is now a tendency to take over ovei seers an 
lanagers who have served on sugar estates. From ieir • 
ealing with labourers and from general experience obtained in 
mnection with engineers, tradesmen, hospital management, ttiey 
re likely to become a valuable acquisition. 
