Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

COST OF CACAO PRODUCTION 99 an acre in Ceylon. All this money has to be invested before one begins to gather a single pod. As pointed out above, in the case of Trinidad, this expenditure does not include anything whatever for management. During the five or six years of waiting for the trees to come into bearing, the young planter would have to live and he could hardly do this on less than (200 a year. At least (1,000 must be added to the initial outlay. The increase which this makes on the cost of an acre naturally depends on the size of the estate. When the cacao tree is five years old in Ceylon and six years old in Trinidad, it bears as follows—■ YIELD OF CACAO BEANS TO THE ACRE Year of Bearing. Trinidad. Ceylon.1 cwts. cwts. Ist H u 2nd .... 2 2J 3rd 21 3f 4th .... 3 4i 5th 34 5 6th 4 5 7th 4i 5 If, as in Ceylon, the trees begin to bear after five years, the question now arises, how many years will the planter have to wait to get back the money he has invested. According to Mr. Keith’s figures, which are given below, after five years’ bearing, sufficient cacao has been produced to give a profit equal in valne to the Capital expenditure, so that, ten years after planting, 1 These yields are fer the Forastero variety ; Criollo usually yields less.