om their number and the
distance from the river, I judged they were propagated by nature.
Though they were overshadowed by larger trees, and had for many years
been neglected, they had reached nevertheless a height of from thirty
to forty feet, and the luxuriant growth and the abundance of fruit,
proved that the plant was satisfied with the soil. The forests at the
banks of the Rio Branco, in the vicinity of Santa Maria and Carno,
abound in wild cacao trees, the fruits of which are collected by the
scanty population of that district for their own use."

The cultivation of cacao will be most suitable to the less wealthy
individual, as it demands so little labor and outlay. Baron Humboldt
observes, in alluding to Spanish America, that cacao plantations are
occupied by persons of humble condition, who prepare for themselves
and their children a slow but certain fortune; a single laborer is
sufficient to aid them in their plantations, and 30,000 trees, once
established, assure competence for a generation and a half.

The following have been the total imports of Cacao into the United
Kingdom from Mexico and Central America, &c.:--

lbs.
1832 85,642
1834 16,171
1835 211
1836 861,531
1837 564,992
1838 1,681,965
1839 508,307
1840 1,058,015
1841 1,802,547
1842 441,084
1843 1,229,515
(Parl. Paper, No. 426, Sess. 1844.)

Only a few hundred pounds of this is entered annually for home
consumption, the great bulk being re-exported.

In 1850 we imported 1,204,572 lbs. from Mexico; 1,231,773 lbs. from
Chile; 4,438 lbs. from Venezuela, and 23,538 lbs. from Hayti.

BRAZIL.--A great deal of cacao is raised in different parts of this
empire. From the province of Para alone 35,000 bags, valued at
L35,000, were exported in the year 1845. Mr. Edwards, in his "Voyage
up the River Amazon," gives an interesting account:--

"We were now (he says) in the great cacao region, which, for an
extent of several hundred square miles, borders the river. The cacao
trees are low, not rising above fifteen or twenty feet, and are
distinguishable from a distance by the yellowish green of their
leaves, so different from aught else around them. They are planted
at intervals of about twelve feet, and, at first, are protected from
the sun's fierceness by banana trees, which,