Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

? 4 i i I j ■■i s 34 THE COCOA AND CHOCOLATE INDUSTRY cacao cultivation. An even distribution throughout the year and a moist atmosphere compensate to a considerable extent for a low rainfall. Thus on the Gold Coast, at Aburi, where the Government Botanical Gardens (with successful cacao plots) are situated, the rainfalls for the three years 1918-1920 were remarkably low : 42 ins., 35 ins., and 36ins. respectively. Cacao grows in a great variety of soils. Some planters look for a light loamy soil ; all prefer a soil which is fairly porous, rich in humus and of considerable depth. Mr. Stanhope Lovell finds in Trinidad that light sandy loams have many advantages and few disadvantages. They retain a more even temperature than heavier soils, they require less tillage and they respond rapidly to treatment with pen-manure or mulch. They give trees which are healthier and grow less moss, but which do not withstand drought as well as those on some of the heavier loams. Knowledge of soils is best learned by observation and practical experience. Chemical analysis is of some value, but until it can give us the amount of various constituents available to the plant-life in question, it will not be so useful, for judging the suitability of the soil, as observation on the spot of the condition and kind of vegetation growing upon it. This, together with the opinion of other planters in the district and of the local Agricultural Department, should be a sufficient guide. Good drainage is important, and water-logged soils are recognised as bad. Soils vary considerably in their power of retaining water and in their ability to raise water from a depth against gravity. The capacity for holding water should be high. An interesting observation by Sir Francis Watts appears to be related to this: he found in certain valleys in Dominica that, if the linear shrinkage of the soil on drying