[Illustration--Colour Plate: CACAO TREE AND SEEDLING]

The valleys of Trinidad and Grenada have grown cocoa for upwards of a
hundred years, but up to the present time very little in the way of
manuring has been done beyond the natural vegetable deposits of the
forest. In many estates of recent years cattle have been quartered in
temporary pens on the hills, moving on month by month, with a large
central pen for the stock down on the savanna.

The cocoa-beans are shipped to Europe in bags containing from one to
one and a half hundredweight, and are disposed of by the London
brokers nearly every Tuesday in the year at a special sale in the
Commercial Sale Room in Mincing Lane.

The cacao-tree has sometimes been grown from seed in hot-houses in
this country, but always with difficulty, for not only must a mean
temperature of at least 80° F. be maintained, but the tree must be
shielded from all draught. Among the most successful are the trees
grown by Mr. James Epps, Jun., of Norwood, by whose kind permission
the accompanying sketches from life were made. Success has only
crowned his efforts after many years of patient care. To grow a mere
plant was comparatively simple, but to produce even a flower needed
long tending, and involved much disappointment; while to secure
fruition by cross-fertilization was a still more difficult task,
accomplished in England probably on only one other occasion.


FOOTNOTES: