verage.

Of the thousands of flowers that bloom on one tree during the year, on
an average only about twenty develop into mature pods, and each pod
yields about 1-1/3 ounces of dry cured cacao. Taking the healthy trees
with the neglected, the average yield is from 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of
commercial cacao per tree. This seems very small, and those who hear it
for the first time often make a rapid mental calculation of the amazing
number of trees that must be needed to produce the world's supply, at
least 250 million trees. Or again, taking the average yield per acre as
400 lbs., we find that there must be well over a million acres under
cacao cultivation. At the Government station at Aburi (Gold Coast) three
plots of cacao gave in 1914 an average yield of over 8 pounds of cacao
per tree, and in 1918 some 468 trees (_Amelonado_) gave as an average
7.8 pounds per tree. This suggests what might be done by thorough
cultivation. It suggests a great opportunity for the planters--that,
without planting one more tree, they might quadruple the world's
production.

The work which has been started by the Agricultural Department in
Trinidad of recording the yield of individual trees has shown that great
differences occur. Further, it has generally been observed that the
heavy bearing trees of the first year have continued to be heavy
bearers, and the poor-yielding trees have remained poor during
subsequent years. The report rightly concludes that: "The question of
detecting the poor-bearing trees on an estate and having them replaced
by trees raised from selected stock, or budded or grafted trees, of
known prolific and other good qualities is deserving of the most serious
consideration by planters."

_The Kind of Cacao that Manufacturers Like._[6]

[6] For further information read _The Qualities in Cacao
Desired by Manufacturers_, by N.P. Booth and A.W.
Knapp, International Congress of Tropical Agriculture,
1914.

Planters have suggested to me that if the users and producers of cacao
could be brought together it would be to their mutual advantage. Permit
me to conceive a meeting and report an imaginary conversation:

PLANTER: You know we planters work a little in the dark. We
don't know quite what to strive after. Tell me exactly what
kind of cacao the manufacturers want?

MANUFACTURER: Every buyer and manufacturer has his tastes and
preferences and----.

PLANTER: Don't