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Page 8
[Illustration--Colour Plate: CACAO PODS]
II. ITS GROWTH AND CULTIVATION.
[Illustration--Drawing: CACAO HARVESTING.]
Cocoa is now grown in many parts of the tropics, reference to which is
made in another chapter. The conditions, however, do not greatly vary,
and there are probably many lands in the tropical belt where it is yet
unknown that possess soil well suited to its extended cultivation.
The cacao-tree grows wild in the forests of Central America, and
varieties have been found also in Jamaica and other West Indian
islands, and in South America. It does not thrive more than fifteen
degrees north or south of the equator, and even within these limits it
is not very successfully grown more than 600 feet above the sea-level;
in many districts where sugar formerly monopolized the plains, it was
supposed that cocoa needed an altitude of at least 200 feet, but
experiments of planting on the old sugar estates and other low-lying
places are generally successful where the soil is good, as in
Trinidad, Cuba, and British Guiana. It has been found that the expense
saved in roads, labour, and transit on the level has been very
considerable in comparison with that incurred on some of the hill
estates.
In appearance the cacao-tree is not greatly unlike one of our own
orchard trees, and trained by the pruning knife it grows similar in
shape to a well-kept apple tree, no very low boughs being left, so
that a man on horseback can generally pass freely down the long
glades. Left to nature, it will in good soil reach a height of over
twenty feet, and its branches will extend for ten feet from the
centre.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Ceylon: Nursery of Cacao
Seedlings in Baskets of plaited Palm Leaf.]
The best soil is that made by the decomposition of volcanic rock, so
that it is a common sight to find areas strewn with large boulders
turned into a cocoa plantation of great fertility; but the best trees
of all lie along the _vegas_ which intersect the hills, where the soil
is deep, and the stream winding among the trees supplies natural
irrigation. The tree also grows well in loams and the richer marls,
but will not thrive on clay and other heavy soils.
The cacao is one of the tenderest of tropical growths, and will not
flourish in any exposed position, for which reason large shade belts
are left along exposed ridges and other parts of a hill estate, thus
greatly reducing the total area under cultivation, in comparison with
an estate of equal extent on the level plains, where no shade belts
are necessary.
The beans are planted either "at stake,"--when three beans are put in
round each stake, the one thriving best after the first year being
left to mature,--or "from nursery," whence, after a few months' growth
in bamboo or palm-leaf baskets, they are transplanted into the
clearing.
The preparation of the land is the first and greatest expense; trees
have to be felled, and bush cut down and spread over the land, so that
the sun can quickly render it combustible. When all is clear, the
cacao is put in among a "catch crop" of vegetables (the cassava,
tania, pigeon-pea, and others), and frequently bananas, though, as
taking more nutriment from the soil, they are sometimes objected to.
But the seedling cacao needs a shade, and as it is some years before
it comes into bearing, it is usual to plant the "catch crop" for the
sake of a small return on the land, as well as to meet this need.
In Trinidad, at the same time that the cacao[10] is planted at about
twelve feet centres, large forest trees are also planted at from fifty
to sixty feet centres, to provide permanent shade. The tree most used
for this purpose is the _Bois Immortelle_ (_Erythrina umbrosa_); but
others are also employed, and experiments are now being made on some
estates to grow rubber as a shade tree. In recent clearings in Samoa,
trees are left standing at intervals to serve this end.
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