Cocoa.

The finest Criollo cacao, or cocoa, is raised in German Samoa, on laud lying just far enough from the seashore to he away from the action of the salt water upon the leaves; and the success of the cacao planters this mist season has been such that it is believed that almost all of the unoccupied cacao laud in Samoa and within 25 miles of Apia will soon have been bought up by people intending to cultivate this profitable plant. At present there are under cultivation some 3700 acres, of which about 1150 acres are in bearing, but many more acres will bear in 1909 and 1910. Crude lands suitable for this culture, and close to Apia, could have been bought within the past lew-years at rates ranging from 15s to £3 per acre. The same properties are worth to-day from £2 to £8 and £10 per acre, according to their situation, for, as a rule, most of the cacao land is of equal worth for planting, but many investors wishing to live on the land, and to send their children to the excellent Governmental schools, desire to get as near as possible to Apia; hence the difference in the valuation of the crude land itself. However, as the price of the land cuts a small figure in the investment, it is not strange that most will prefer to pay the higher rate in order to get comfortably located close to the town.

It takes five years to get cacoa into a fine paying state, and some £30 or [unclear: d] per acre are usually expended in the [unclear: wa] of tilth and accessories—tins on top [unclear: n] the original cost of the land. Thu,. [unclear: if] man buys, say, 50 acres at £5 per [unclear: am] it costs £250. His houses, fencing, [unclear: hes] and cart, cows, pigs, fowls, and seed, [unclear: and] tilth cost him, spread over the five [unclear: way] ing years, say, £30 per acre if he employment an overseer, totalling £1500. Thus he [unclear: l] a 50-acre cacao orchard after five years [unclear: and] a cost of £1750. While, if he had [unclear: bod] cheaper land, the cost would hardly [unclear: he] less, as he would have got on slower, [unclear: ma] he could only have saved something [unclear: n] out of the original £250.

If the planter is himself a [unclear: practed] working man, and willing to get into [unclear: the] field and work with his own nativ [unclear: as] Chinese labour, and in charge of [unclear: them] he gets more and better work done. [unclear: It] probable that a good manager, [unclear: having] say, £1000, and laying it out carcfully over a period of five years, and [unclear: growing] some catch crops between his cacao [unclear: trees] will be quite able to get his 50 acres [unclear: into] bearing for £1000. or even less, and [unclear: these] after own a property which should [unclear: pass] him annually a net profit of £15 or [unclear: f] per acre, probably more, for the [unclear: estimad] is on the low side.

The cacao yield of the first months of the year 1908 has been [unclear: exced] lent and a splendid quality of bean has met a very good market. "Moat of [unclear: the] Samoan product is shipped to [unclear: Hambow] which is the world's cacao centre.