THE CULTIVATION OF COCOA 159 



conserve this layer of leaves by affording sufficient 

 shade. Under such conditions "clean weeding" can- 

 not be other than beneficial to the cocoa trees, and 

 planters are strongly recommended to try the system. 

 As yet, however, " clean weeding " is rarely met with 

 on cocoa plantations, though it has long ago been 

 adopted on many coffee and rubber plantations as 

 being in every sense preferable to the system of leaving 

 the weeds and cutting them once or twice a year. 

 The reason may be that the cocoa tree does not suffer 

 so much damage from the presence of weeds as coffee 

 and rubber ; but one great advantage of the system is 

 just as important in cocoa as in coffee or rubber culture, 

 namely, its cheapness. When once a plantation is 

 free of weeds, it requires little labour to keep it clean. 

 On one coffee estate in Java, for instance, from 20 to 

 33 guilders per baw (about 20s. to 30s. per acre) were 

 spent each year when weeding was done in the usual 

 way ; when " clean weeding " had been adopted, the 

 cost was reduced from 7*40 to 10 guilders per baw 

 (about 7s. to 9s. per acre). 



When it is intended to adopt " clean weeding," 

 the planter is strongly recommended to begin im- 

 mediately after the clearing of the forest. The weeders 

 should go over each field at short intervals at the 

 beginning, every ten or fourteen days ; later on, every 

 three weeks. In this way the weeds never have time 

 to make seeds and to " infect " the field. Even where 

 the ordinary system of weeding has at first been 

 followed, it is later on possible to eradicate the weeds 

 completely. In such cases the dry season is the best 

 time to attack the weeds and to destroy them by 

 repeated weeding, if necessary with the help of the 

 hoe. This instrument will be indispensable for such 

 work on stiff soils. 



A drawback of the system of " clean weeding " is 

 experienced ia countries where the planter cannot be 

 sure of always having the necessary number of 

 labourers at his disposal. Wherever this is the case, 



