86o 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[May 1, 1883. 



DelgoUa, and have been doing useful work during the 

 showery weather we have had lately. 



CUEING THE BEANS. 



A cooly picks two bushe Is of cocoa beans per diem, and 

 as 5 bushels wet = 1 cwt., the cost is only about S7c 

 a cwt. for picking as compared with R2 to E3 for Liber- 

 ian coffee. The pods are first cut from the tree, a sniaU 

 piece of stem being left on the tree, and the cooly takes 

 one in each hand, and mth a knock breaks them both 

 in halves, and then with one draw of his fingers dexter- 

 ously strips all the beans off the centre pidp. The pods 

 are then tin-own do^vn round the trees and act as manure, 

 while the beans are removed to the fermenting cisterns. 

 It takes from 5 to 9 days to properly ferment the cocoa, 

 .and it is then ready for washing. It is trampled first, as 

 in coffee with the feet, and then is removed in baskets 

 and carefully handwashed, as wasliiug with the " mata- 

 palagei" damages the beans. 



I have no doubt that erelong some means less ex- 

 pensive will be found for washing, and the clerihew will be 

 much improved on too. 



After washing, the cocoa is laid on mats to diy as coffee 

 is, if the weather is suitable ; and at times it is advisable to 

 give it a rub over with small pieces of sack or cloth, which 

 improves the appearance of the beans, and facilitates dry- 

 ing in this showery weather. 



The difference in well cured and badly cured cocoa amounts 

 to at least E20 per cwt., and the prices obtained for it, as 

 in tea, will depend in a much greater measure on the 

 careful attention of the superintendent to the curing, than 

 in the case o{ C(Jfea Arahiva, am\ the good man will have 

 a better chance of coming ' to the fore ' than in days of old 

 with coffee. 



EIPENING OF CHOP. 



tt seems strange that cocoa on young trees does not 

 ripen nearly so quickly as on trees over 4 or 5 years old, 

 but the crop season in cocoa as in Liberian coffee extends 

 over eight months of the year — which is a much less severe 

 strain on the trees than if it were confined to three months 

 as in the case of Coffea Arahica. By the time we had got 

 roimd the estate it was getting late, and I returned to the 

 bungalow more than pleased with my visit to this grand 

 sheet of cocoa, which I cannot say more for than that it 

 has exceeded the most sanguine expectations of Mr. Fox, 

 the part-proprietor and superintendent, and we all know 

 what that means, and how sanguine we are over the paper 

 calculations, in the case of a new venture — too often alas ! 

 to be disappointed. 



SatJIEBELS. 



Squirrels used to destroy a lot of cocoa pods by eating 

 through the shell, when the beans go bad at once ; but 

 after employing a watchman %vith a gim to shoot them for 

 two years they are practically exterminated now, on this 

 estate. At fir.st he used to kill six to eight a day, but now he 

 gets two with <Ufliculty ; however he must have been the death 

 of some thousands of those " festive little cusses " first 

 aud last, and I wondered that he had never pre served their 

 skins, as the fur is pretty, and would sell well at home, 

 doubtless. He would do well, even now at the eleventh 

 hour of the squirrels' existence on Delgolla, so t-> speak, to 

 take a leaf out of the book of his American contemporaries. 

 These squirrel-hunters use bullets ouly, and shoot the 

 branch the squirrel is sitting on, when by the shock he 

 usually drops stunned to the ground, with his coat per- 

 fectly uninjured. When squiiTels are scarce aud.skiusin 

 good demand, his coat is carefully removed something on 

 the principle of cinchona stripping, when I was assured it 

 renews perfectly from 6 to 9 months, and having a much 

 larger percentage of soft hairs, which sell at so much a 

 unit, the renewed skin is much more valuable than the 

 first one. 



FEUIT AND RUBBER TEEES. 



But to return to our subject of " New Products." Rourfd 

 Mr. Fox's bungalow are a large number of fruit and rubber 

 trees, the latter the result of a very moderate investment 

 in seeds aiul pl.ants (I forgptwhich), amounting to R2'76 

 (two rupees and seventy-six cents"), aud from tlii>se trees 

 Mr. Fox has sold Kl,500 (fifteen hundred) worth of plants 

 and seeds — a very good retiu-n for his money ! 



There can be no doubt that a few rupees in- 

 vested in many of the new products now being advert- 

 ized would, as a rule, pay handsomely, while, should the 

 extension prove likely to be successful a nucleus having 

 been formed, it would be an easy matter and inexpens- 

 ive to extend the cultivation at any time. 



After (hnner, to which a neighbour came in, weary 

 with his long round of work in this exhausting climate, 

 the bullock driver got instructions to " hitch the insect," 

 and I was soon rattling back merrily to IMapolla, which 

 was reached somewhere about the wee short hour ayont 

 the twal', and my conversation with Mr. Jardine (so far 

 as I can remember) amounted to : — "You 've got back all 

 right?" " Ye.s, th.anks." "You look very sleepy." " Yes, good 

 night I " I scarcely remember even this much. 



LIBEEIA ESTATE: — THE COFFEE CROP. 



Liberia e-state lies about four miles from Udapolla, part of 

 this being along the edge of the railway, aud after leav- 

 ing Udapolla about 8 a. m. I reached Liberia in time for 

 a walk before breakfast. The trees here are in good 

 heart. Leaf-disease has almost entirely disappeared. A 

 fine blossom just out augurs well for next year's crop, 

 which Mr Sturgeon expects to amount to 2,500 bushels 

 parchment. The coffee on this estate is very widely 

 planted lOJ ft. k lOJ ft. on an average, but cocoa, which 

 is coming on remarkably v?ell, is being planted all over 

 the estate with a view to supersede the coffee later on. 

 On this estate there is about 100 acres coffee planted 

 and in bearing, and the present crop, 2,000 bushels, is at 

 the r.ate of 4 cwt. per acre at this wide distance, and 

 with a good many vacancies, or planted 7 ft. « 7 ft. at 

 the rate of 9 cwt. per acre ! ! 



As in the case of Delgolla and Udapolla the estimate 

 this year will be fully got it not exceeded, and the 

 cocoa is already beginning to bear in some of the 

 first planted fields; 50 cwt. of a crop will be got from 

 it next year, a few cwt. being already in store. This 

 wiU increase very much tor the next few years till all 

 comes into bearing. 



The country all round here ^except on some ridges) 

 seems best suited for cocoa, and the protection att'orded 

 by the coffee to the young plants helps the cocoa so 

 well, that in a short time we may expect to find all 

 the es'iites on this side — cocoa estates, with coffee as a 

 subsidiary product^ — in fact every estate round about is 

 being fully planted with cocoa so far as I could make 

 out, and the several clearings being filled this year are 

 all for cocoa also. 



One enterprizing proprietor is this year planting up a 

 clearing between the lines of coffee with tea, and with 

 such an ample and well, distributed rainfall as there is, 

 (which I was astonished to see, aud annex), there seems 

 every reason to believe it will succeed well. The aver- 

 age is about 105 iuches for the two years, and it rained 

 in every month, February being the driest, and October 

 the wettest month of the year ;— 



LIBEEIA ESTATE RAINFALL. 



January. . . 



February 



Jlarch . . . 



April 



May 



June 



July 



August . . . 



September 



October... 



November 



December 



In a year or two hence, tea will have had a fair trial, 

 and we will then be able to speak of it as we can of 

 the other products now — from experience. Several of 

 the estates in this district near the cart road manure the 

 coffee and cocoa with nuiuure, collected from the cart- 

 road cattle sheds, at which there is a lot available. 



