February i, 1883,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



66g 



COCOA IN SURINAM. 

 " To enter the Conimeweyne river we were first ob- 

 liged to retrace a portion of the route by which I had 

 arrived ihree days before, and to follow the downward 

 course of the Surinam river for about eight miles, 

 passing the same objects no longer wholly new, but 

 now more iuteresting than before, because neaier seen 

 and better mderstood. Here is a plantation, caught 

 by glimpses through the mangrove scrub that borders 

 the river's bank : a narrow creek, at the mouth of 

 "liich several monred barges and balf-submerged corials 

 are tjnthered, gives adriiittance to the heart of the estate. 

 It is a vast cocoa-grove, where you may wander at 

 will, under continuous acres of green canopy ; that 

 is, if you are ready to jump over any number of 

 small brimming ditclies, and to cross the wider ir- 

 rigution-trenches on bridges, the best of which is 

 simply a round and slippery tree trunk, excellently 

 adapted, no doubt, to the naked foot of a negro labourer, 

 but on which no Eui'opean boot or slice can hope to 

 maintain an inslnnt's bold. Huge poda, some yellow, 

 some red, — tlie former colour is I am told indicative 

 of better quality, — dangle in lour fact-, and dispel 

 the illusion by which you might, at first sight of the 

 growth and foliage around you, have lancied yourself 

 to be in the midst of a remarkably fine alder tree 

 thicket ; while, from distance to distance, bread- 

 boughed trees, of the kind called by the negroes 

 " coffee-mamniH," from the shelter they afford to the 

 plantations of that bush, spread their thick shade high 

 aloft and protect the cocoa bushes and their fruit 

 from the direct action of the burning sun. Moisture, 

 warmth and shade, ihese are the primary and most 

 essential conditions for the well-doing of a cocoa estate. 

 Innumerable trenches, dug with mathematical ex»oti- 

 tude of alternate line and interspaoe, supply the first 

 requisite ; a temperature that, in a wind-fenced situa- 

 tion like this, bears a close resmblance tor humid 

 warmth to that of an accurately shut hot-house, 

 assures thesecond; and the " coffee-maiuma, " a dense- 

 leaved tree not unlike inir own beech, guarantees the 

 third. Thus favoured a Surinam uncoa crop is pretty 

 sure to be an abundant one. Ever and anon, where 

 the green labyrinth is at its thickest, yuu come sud- 

 denly across n burly Creole negro, busily engaged in 

 plucking the large pods from the boughs with his 

 left band, while with a eharp cutlass he dixteroiisly 

 cuts nfi' the upper part of the thick outer covering 

 and shakes the slimy agglomeration of feed and 

 white burr clinging to it into a basket set close by 

 him on the ground. A single labourer will in this 

 fashion coll- ct nearly 400 lb. weight of seeds in the 

 course of a day. When full the baskets are carried 

 ofif on the beads of the assistant field-women, or if 

 taken from the remoter parts of the plantation, are 

 Hoated down in boats or corials to the brick-paved 

 courtyaid adjoining the plant ra' dwelling-house, 

 where the nuts are cleansed and dried by simple and 

 inexpensive processes, not unlike those in use for 

 the cofice berry : after which nothing remains but 

 to fill the sacks and send them oflf to their market 

 across the seas. 



A Guiana cocoa plantation is an excellent invest- 

 ment. The first outlay is not heavj ; nor is the 

 maintenance of the plantation expensive, the number 

 of labourers bearing an average proportion of one to 

 nine to that of th' acres under cultivation. The 

 work reejuired is of a kind that negioes, who are 

 even now not uufrequently prejudiced by the memory of 

 slave days against the cane field and sugar factoiy, 

 undertake willingly enough ; and, to judge by their 

 stout limbs and evieUut good condition, they find it 

 not unsuited to their eapabilites. More than 4,000,000 

 . weight oi cocoa aie yearly produced in Surinam, 



86 



" which is a consideration," as a negro remarked to 

 me, laboriously attempting to put his ideas intu Eng- 

 lish, instead of the Creole mixiuie of every known 

 laofjuage tliat they use among theiiiselvcs. Neither 

 coolies nor Chinese are employed an these cocoa estates, 

 much to the satisfactimi of the creolev, who though tole- 

 rant of, or rather clinging to European mastership, have 

 litrle sympathy with other coh.ured or semi-civilized 

 races. * «■ * Soil, climate and the conditiMii of lab' ur, 

 all here combine to favour the cocoa plant ; and acrord- 

 ingly out of the 30,000 acres actually under cultivation in 

 Dutch Ouiana, we find that a sixth part is dedicated 

 to its proJuction. More would be, but for the time 

 required before a fresh plantation can bear a remuner- 

 ative crop ; five or six years musi, in fact, elapse, 

 during which no return at all is made, " wliich is 

 a consideration " also, though in an opposite sense 

 to that quoted a.hove.— Butch Qu'tana, by \V. G. Pal- 

 grave, pp. 78-82. 



In Surinam * • * « « the acres actually under cultiva- 

 tion in 1873 amounted to 27,817 ; and of theae the 

 official report for that year assigns 13,64(;, or about 

 one-half, to sugar ; one-half again of the remaiiang 

 land is occupied by cocoa ; and the residual quarter 

 appears as divided between coffee, cotton, bananas, 

 and the mixed gardening of provision-grounds. 



These proportions have not been always the same. 

 Thus, for example, cotton, first introduced in 1752, rose 

 into comparative ioiportance during the English oc- 

 cupation of 1804-1(3, and soon secured a sort of mono- 

 poly in the Coronie district, then newly opened to 

 cultivation. In 1832 the number of cotion-growino 

 estates exceeded 60 ; 20 years later it had sunk to 

 30, and of these again seven only have survived down 

 to the present time ; five of them are in Coronie, 

 two on the upper Surinam. Cocoa, the heirloom of 

 Van Sommelsdyk's administration in 1685, has been 

 more fortunaie. for a long time an interloper, and 

 a mere supplementary growth on the spare corners 

 of coffee plantations, it claimed on its own account, 

 even so lately as 1852 only t\^ o estates — a number 

 raised m the latest census to 3t), while its produce 

 has absolutelj' doubled itself witliin the last five y.'.u-s. 

 On the other hand, cofi'ee brought hither from Java 

 about the beginning of ihe lSi;h century, and at 

 one time the main staple of the colony, has steadily 

 dwindled till, out of 178 plantations registered in 1S32, 

 only 30 dragged on a feeble and uiif reductive existence 

 in 1873. bur a dimination like this no satisfactory 

 cause has been iissigned, nor can any reason be given 

 why tob.icco and indigo, two of the earliest recorded 

 prorlucts of the upland of Surinam, should now be 

 represented by a bl.mk in the catalogue of expuits. 



The extent of the sugar plantations has been already 

 stated. Their number according to the latest published 

 surveys is 65. 'llie amount of their joint produce ex- 

 ported in 1873, exceeded in value two millions and- 

 a-half of fioriiis. Cocoa furnished hatf-a million more ; 

 cotton fcomewb.at over a hnudied thousand ; coffee 

 scarcely found a mention. — Duhli Guiana, by VV. G. 

 Palgnve, pp. 246-8. 



NEW PRODUCTS IN DEMEKARA. 



The lioiial Gazette writes: — From all sides we hear 

 of increasc'l exertions being made in " mixed cultiva- 

 tion," princ p.dly by time-expired immigrants, and it is 

 satisfactory to learn that the labor the^e people have 

 bestowed, and are bestowing, on their fie-lds ia being 

 attended with most promising results. From Sheldon 

 on the Corentyue, to the Essei|uebo Coast and the 

 Ponieroon district, and up all of our rivers, little 

 settlements are now met with where the frugal East 

 Indians or plodding Chinese have erected their dwell- 

 ing!', and where rice, plantains, eddoes, corn, cnssava, 

 sw<'et potatoes, etc., ire each cultivated, •'industry. 



