; but my experience does not enable me to
speak positively upon the subject. Should the three seeds placed in
each hole spring up, it is thought necessary, when the plants are
fifteen or twenty inches high, to cut one of them down. The two
others, if they devaricate, are sometimes suffered to remain, but it
does not always happen that even _one_ of the three springs above the
earth; consequently this additional labor is not invariably requisite.

On the fourth or fifth year the tree begins to bear, and attains
perfection by the eighth, continuing to produce two crops of fruit per
annum, yielding at each crop from 10 lbs. to 20 lbs., according to the
nature of the soil. It will continue bearing for twenty years; but, as
it is a delicate plant, it suffers from drought, and is liable to
blight. In these respects, however, it does not differ from many other
plants, which are even more subject to disease, though not half so
valuable. Besides, a proper system of irrigation, such as could be had
recourse to in many parts of Jamaica, would obviate and prevent these
evils.

The whole quantity imported into the United Kingdom from the West
Indies and British Guiana during the last thirteen years, has been as
follows:--

lbs.
1831 1,491,947
1832 618,090
1833 2,125,641
1834 1,360,325
1835 439,440
1836 1,611,104
1837 1,847,125
1838 2,147,816
1839 969,428
1840 2,374,233
1841 2,919,105
1842 2,490,693
1843 1,496,554
1844 3,119,555
1845 3,351,602
1846 1,738,848
1847 3,026,381
1848 2,602,309
1849 3,159,086
1850 1,987,717
1851 4,347,195
1852 3,933,863

Cacao is cultivated in the highlands as well as on the coasts of the
north-eastern peninsula of the large and rich island of Celebes, which
has within the last year or two been thrown open to foreign trade. The
plantations of it are even now considerable, and this branch of
industry only requires not to be impeded by any obstacles in order to
be still further extended. It forms a large ingredient in the local
trade, and furnishes many petty traders with their daily bread, not to
speak of the landowners, for whom the cultivation of the cacao affords
the only subsistence. The preparation of the product differs from that
adopted in the West Indies, but we have not been able to ascertain the
practice. W