688 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [MARCH 2, i88s_ 



from five to ten pounds per bag or more must have been 

 caused afterwards by pilfering or other irregular practices. 

 The dock companies had been written to on the subject, 

 and could not satisfactorily account for the differences in 

 the weights, and some persons seemed inclined to throw 

 the blame for the deficiency upon the too frequent samplings 

 of the article that are allowed before it is finally sold for 

 consumption, as well as upon the largeness of the samples 

 that are drawn each time, the payment for which goes only 

 into the pockets of the dock or wharf companies, without 

 a fraction of the money being handed over to either the 

 importer or the purchaser. In the discussion which followed, 

 it was snggested that the amounts abstracted from the 

 bags, when sampled, should be endorsed upon the back of 

 the warrants, so as to be deducted from the landing weights 

 when the cocoa is delivered, but the impracticability of this 

 plan being tried was at once seen when it was mentioned 

 that the warrants might happen to be in the safe custody 

 of a third party, humourously described as being "uncle" 

 to all those people who are at times in want of a little 

 help. One of the largest manufacturers of cocoa, who was 

 present, said that he quite agreed with what had been 

 urged by Mr. Lehmkiihl, and while admitting that the loss 

 in weight had been occasioned by the same cocoa being 

 sampled too often, and other causes, he stated it as his 

 opinion that the spring and summer having been unusually 

 dry, and the cocoa being also in a similar state when 

 shipped from the West Indies, a greater degree of shrinkage 

 in weight had been going on than they had been accustomed 

 to find. This manufacturer also informed his hearers that 

 he had to complain of a heavier loss in the weights of 

 the finer qualities of cocoa than in the commoner sorts, 

 which rendered the case still more serious to the buyers, 

 who not only lost their money through having a smaller 

 bulk forwarded to them, but were also losers in giving higher 

 prices for a quantity which the bags did not contain. *£ hus 

 the trade expressed their views on this important ques\Aon, 

 but without coming to any definite resolution; and although 

 the idea of introducing "re-weights" was mooted, its con- 

 sideration was adjourned sine die. — Indian Planters' Gazette. 



A VISIT TO THE OBYLON COCOA (CHOCOLATE) 



DISTRICTS. 



The specimens of cocoa trees in the Botanical Gardens 

 at Peradeniya were pronounced as very poor. They were 

 upwards of 25 years old. It was. not their age, but the 

 close planting that seemed to interfere with their proper 

 development. The shade, too, seemed too much for a 

 tropical plant needing a certain amount of sun warmth. 

 Next morning we drove northward of Kandy, and after 

 crossiug a massive bridge spanning the Mavelligunge, took 

 an easterly direction towards a lower range of hills. The 

 road (well metalled) for four miles or more bordered the 

 river. Strips of laud between the road and the river were 

 planted with coffee owned by natives. Save a few trees 

 recently planted, there is no sign of cocoa cultivation 

 making rapid progress to supplant coffee in these small 

 holdings. After ascending about 500 ft. in 2 miles, we 

 reached a veritable coffee estate well kept up and in 

 bearing. The coolies were busy picking the red cherries, 

 and we had no idea that we were to stop here to examine 

 the place as a cocoa plantation too! The cocoa (chocolate) 

 was young, and was planted at about 12 ft. apart amongst 

 the coffee. The coffee bushes were lopped and kept down 

 at 4 ft., and the cocoa averaged 7 or 8 ft. high. The 

 trees looked delicate, and it was surprising to see how 

 they carried on their slender outer branches their large 

 fruit. Some of the trees had as many as eighty fruits 

 and almost all matured. The soil in the neighbourhood 

 was chiefly of a soft rich darkened loam ; but higher up 

 the hills and near the ridges it was very poor, and consisted 

 mostly of gravel of excellent quality for road-making and 

 nothing more. The cocoa trees in the ravines and sheltered 

 nooks were healthy and strong. In exposed places the wind 

 is said to stunt their growth, but the poorness of the 

 soil in such places is the more probable reason. The cocoa 

 trees must be put down iu the category of orchard fruit 

 trees. They will no more succeed on the hill tracts in 

 Ceylon, as fields of coffee and tea do in continuous open 

 sheets, than would the mango and other fruit trees. The 



natives in the valleys and at the foot of the hills have 

 the best land for its cultivation, and though these plots 

 are small, the yield from them is likely to be very large. 

 Owing to the accumulation of rubbish, cattle manure, &c, 

 for centuries, the soils of these gardens are rich. The 

 native coffee, unpruned and untended in these gardens, 

 was said to yield as much as a ton of coffee per acre, 

 and valued, iu good times, at R1,000 or more ! Half that 

 yield was an average crop. The cocoa cultivation com- 

 menced vigorously amongst the planters about four years 

 ago, but very little progress has been made by the natives 

 as yet and unless some practical scheme is caried out 

 by the Government, it is not likely to be of much benefit 

 to the natives, and ultimately to the Government. Instead 

 of throwing extra burdens, taxations, &c, on the European 

 planting community to make up deficiency of revenue 

 from native sources needed to maintain Government, it 

 would be better policy to endeavour to place the natives 

 on their former financial footing by encouraging the cultiv- 

 ation of new products amongst them. At present it is a 

 disgrace to the Government to see scores of tax defaulters 

 being fed in jails at the Colony's expense. Taking a short 

 route through a tract of low undulating land and cross- 

 ing several streams, we reached another cocoa plantation. 

 It was once a sugar estate, then a coffee, and now a 

 flourishing cocoa estate! The soil here was darker than 

 the last place we visited, and showed signs of limestone. 

 As it was almost all level there was no wash or waste 

 of soil here. AVe were lucky in meeting a party of pickers 

 gathering the fruit. They had to be closely watched by 

 an assistant overseer to prevent careless picking. It is 

 not an easy matter to detect a properly ripe cocoa pod 

 from a green or a matured one. Some of the pickers used 

 a light short hollow stick, about a foot in length and 

 the thickness of a finger, to detect the condition of the 

 fruit. "When rapping a fruit a sound is emitted, a dull 

 heavy " thud " indicating immaturity, and a slightly hollow 

 sound a sufficiently ripe pod. Some of the intelligent 

 pickers could tell a ripe fruit by sight. The pods are 

 removed to a barbacue where they are cut open and the 

 seeds or nibs gathered. The seeds are covered with a white 

 pulp very pleasant to the taste, and it is this that attracts one 

 class of enemies, such as bats, squirrels and rats during 

 the cocoa season. The seeds are heaped and covered over 

 with coarse mats and left to ferment. This is done to 

 remove the pulp easily, as well as to destroy the germ 

 in the nuts at an early stage. If the germ were allowed 

 to exist or start for a few hours, the nibs or nuts do not 

 keep well, and rot before they reach a foreign market. 

 Save a little care in the picking and fermenting ami 

 drying of the seed, the management of a cocoa plantation 

 is neither an expensive nor a difficult matter. AVhile for 

 a tea estate it is calculated that the labor staff usually 

 employed on a coffee estate will have to be trebled, a 

 cocoa plantation, well planted up and over three years old, 

 wiU need only half the number of hands emyloyed on a 

 coffee estate. From tbe opinion and sayings of one gentle- 

 man with five years' experience, we are inclined to believe 

 t bat the profits will not be more than what could be got 

 from an average tea estate, very probably less. By high 

 cultivation, as manuring, proper shading, irrigation, &c, 

 our informant calculated that from the third to tenth year 

 an average return of K150 per acre could be depended 

 ou, and R200 per acre from the tenth year. w e paid a 

 visit to the store to see the process of drying the nibs. 

 On a good warm and yet breezy day it was quickly done. 

 Square shallow bamboo baskets with moveable tops were 

 used. The baskets were placed in the opeu air exposed 

 to the sun with the tops on. The seeds were placed below 

 in thin layers. In dry weather this plan succeeded, but 

 in wet weather all kinds of "firing" have been tried with 

 far from satisfactory results. The recent introduction of 

 new patent fruit driers will tend to better results, judging 

 from a few trials already made in Colombo. ' 



A good deal appeared in the local journals about the 

 evil effects of the Helopeltis antonii on cocoa, but we saw 

 very few trees severely injured, and met no cocoa planter 

 who looked upon the pest as a great unconquerable foe, 

 blasting this new enterprise. Tea is certainly makiug rapid 

 strides, but our friend shrewdly suspects that proprietors 

 of cocoa plantations will in the end be best off, not having 

 to depend much on skilled supervision, expensive machinery. 



