102 



COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 



CARRYING CACAO TO THE RAILWAY STATION, 

 NSAWAM, GOLD COAST. 



shrubs, above which rise the grey stems of such forest 

 trees as have been left to afford shade. 



Here, not only have the cultivation, fermentation 

 and drying of cacao been brought to the highest state 

 of perfection, but the details of organisation planters' 

 homes, hospitals, cottages, drying sheds and the Decau- 

 ville railways are often models of their kind. 



Intelligent and courteous, the planters make delight- 

 ful hosts. At their homes, five thousand miles away 

 from Europe, the visitor, who knows what it means 

 to struggle with steaming, virgin forests, rank encroach- 

 ing vegetation, deadly fevers, and the physical and 

 mental inertia engendered by the tropics, will marvel 



