The vallies of Aragua, in the province of Caracas, those of Cariaco, Campano, of Rio Caribe and the banks of the river Caroni, in Spanish Guiana, produce excellent cacao in abundance.

The tree there bears fruit in four years after it has been planted, the following year still more, and increases in fecundity until the ninth or tenth year, when it is in full bearing.

The banks of the Magdalena, in the vicinity of Santa Martha and Carthagena, are famed for the excellent cacao they produce.  “This tree,” says Bonnycastle (Spanish America, vol. 1, p. 257), “is indigenous, seldom exceeds the diameter of seven inches, and is extremely beautiful when laden with its fruit, which are disposed on short stalks over the stem and round the great branches, resembling citrons, from their yellow color, and warty appearance.  The leaves are attenuate, stalked, drooping, about a foot long and three inches broad, elliptic, oblong, pointed, slightly wavy, entire, and very smooth on both sides; with one mid-rib and many transverse ones, connected by innumerable veins.  The petals of the flower are yellow, the calyx of a light rose-color, and the flowers themselves are small and placed on tufts on the sides of the branches, with single foot-stalks, about an inch long.  Its fruit is red, or a mixture of red and yellow, and about three inches in diameter, with a fleshy rind half-an-inch thick; the pulp is whitish and of the consistence of butter, containing the seed; these seeds are generally twenty-five in number in each fruit, and when first gathered are of a flesh color, and form a nice preserve if taken just before they are ripe.  Each tree yields about two or three pounds of fruit annually, and comes to maturity the third year after planting from the seed; it also bears leaves, flowers, or fruit all the year round, the usual seasons for gathering being June and December.  The excellence of the Magdalena chocolate may be attributed to the moist nature of the soil, as the plant never thrives where the ground is hard and dry, or cannot be irrigated.”

Mode of cultivation in the Colombian Republics—­Plantations of cacao were speedily multiplied in Colombia, and the soil so admirably seconded the labors of the planter, that in the produce abundance was united to excellence.  The cacao of this quarter ranks next to that of Soconusco.  It is well known that the best commercial recommendation of cacao is that of coming from Caracas.  But even in these provinces the quality varies.  The cacao of Orituco is superior to that of other places, and a quantity of equal bulk weighs twenty per cent. more.  The cacao of the coast comes next, and obtains a preference over that of the interior.

The plantations of cacao are all to the north of the chain of mountains which coast the sea, and in the interior country.  The former extend from Cumana to the mouth of the Tocaygo; the latter are situate in the vallies of Tuy, Orituco, Ocumare, Cura, Marrin, Tare, Santa Theresa, Santa Lucia, Zuapira, Santa Philippo, Barquisimeto, Valencia, Gruige and Cariaco.