the maximum number of trees; so that 960 trees per quarrée, at l¼
lb. per tree, gives 1,211 lbs. of cacao, at 5 dollars per 100 lbs.
is worth 60 dollars,[2] gross return per quarrée; deducting 36
dollars, not 80 dollars, for expenses, which leaves 24 dollars per
quarrée net, or about 7 dollars 75 cents per acre.

This is a startling account from lands among the most fertile in the
world, and from a plant, under fair treatment, next to the sugar
cane, perhaps the most grateful for the care bestowed, more
especially when we consider that more than ten times that quantity
might be obtained with a comparatively insignificant _outlay of
money_.

If such, then, be the case, as stated in the above report (and it is
to be regretted that it is too near the truth), apathy on the part
of those whose interests are so much concerned is unwarrantable. It
is not enough to say that our fathers must have known the proper way
to plant cacao; this is but a lame excuse, and not sufficient to
dispense with any exertions of the present generation, beyond merely
collecting whatever fruit may come, as it were, fortuitously.
Moreover, at the time the present cacao plantations were established
in this island, its cultivation was comparatively little known; it
is therefore likely that they might have erred, as they undoubtedly
did, in cramming them so close together; but notwithstanding this,
by a proper system of thinning, the evils might have been easily
obviated, and large crops ensured.

A few mornings ago, a cacao planter from Santa Cruz called on me,
and in conversation stated that the only place where he had anything
like a crop of cacao at present, was where the hurricane of the 11th