I have been obligingly furnished by Mr. W. Purdie, the able Government
botanist of Trinidad, with a short essay upon the cultivation of the
cacao tree, with which many of the valleys of that island are so
beautifully adorned, and which, at one time, poured into that now
unfortunate colony so large a stream of wealth. Fortunately the cacao
planter of the island has managed to survive the many years of
depression under which--like sugar now--the cacao cultivations
lingered and sunk, and which brought the once wealthy planter down to
poverty and misery. His prospects, however, are gradually improving.

The opinions put forth by Mr. Purdie, on the subject of which he
treats, will be found to run counter to the long-established practice
hitherto pursued in the treatment of cacao plantations; but it must
not be forgotten that these are the opinions of a person with whom the
study of trees, their physiology and functions, has been not merely an
amusing science, but an adopted employment, and whose acquirements in
this respect, previous to his arrival in the colony, recommended him
for selection as the agent to extend through South America (the great
cacao region) the investigations of one of the most noted botanical
gardens in Europe.

Mr. Purdie says:--

"In the present depressed times, it behoves us to look well into the
resources of our fertile island, particularly as far as any
improvement can be suggested capable of averting, at least, a part
of the misery and ruin that is hovering over us, and which is too
eagerly borne on the lips of all classes of the community, instead
of using our efforts to do what we can to meet the difficulty; but
few seem to inquire whether we make the most of our present means or