VI 



THE CULTIVATION OF COCOA 113 



ment of the wet season. It is very advisable at the 

 beginning of the dry season to fork the places where 

 the bananas will be planted, in order that the sun and 

 the air may render the soil loose and friable during the 

 drought. 



The cassava plant (Manihot utilissima) is in many 

 countries considered useful as temporary shade, but it 



Photo.'rAuguste Curiel. 



FIG. 39. Cocoa grown under too dense shade of closely-planted plantains 

 (cocoa field of a small proprietor in Surinam). 



The little cocoa tree, 5 feet high, has not yet ramified, and is bending towards the light. 



is not so suitable for cocoa as the banana. It has, 

 not without reason, the reputation of rapidly exhaust- 

 ing the soil, while in stiff clay soils its growth is 

 poor. It does not act as a soil improver like the 

 banana, and it is more particular about the conditions 

 of the soil. In some countries it has the further dis- 

 advantage of attracting animals which eat the tubers, 

 as in Madagascar the wild hog, which seems to be able 

 to cause enormous damage in this way by digging up the 

 roots of the young cocoa and by destroying the shade. 



