THE CULTIVATION OF COCOA 193 



healthy twigs play a much more important part, and 

 the number of places where flower-buds may be pro- 

 duced, as well as the number of buds produced on each 

 spot, are so great that too small a number of flowers 

 and young fruit is hardly to be feared when the tree is 

 in good condition and well nourished. All the same, 

 careful picking is, of course, strongly to be recommended. 

 To attain this the planter must have handy and skilful 

 pickers, good tools, and sufficient supervision over the 

 picking gang. 



The picking of the fruit on the stem and the main 

 branches is an easy task. It is generally done by 

 means of the cutlass knife, sometimes with large pruning 

 knives. The picking of the fruits on the higher parts 

 of the tree requires more skill, as care has to be taken 

 to make a clean cut without injuring either the cushion 

 or other adjoining fruits. Several forms of cocoa hooks 

 (Fig. 63) have been made to enable the pickers to pull 

 as well as to push, for it is sometimes better to pull 

 when the branch is hanging, while, when the branch is 

 standing, a clean cut is obtained more easily by pushing 

 in an upward direction. 



The hook generally used in Ecuador, the so-called 

 " podadera " (Fig. 63, a), is only suitable for pushing. 

 This drawback is counterbalanced by the fact that the 

 " podadera " is always made of steel of superior quality, 

 and is always kept very sharp ; and in addition the 

 Ecuadorian pickers are very adept at wielding it. The 

 hooks used in Trinidad (Fig. 63, b) and Kamerun (Fig. 

 63, c) have the advantage of being handier when a fruit 

 is difficult to reach ; for instance, when a ripe fruit 

 hangs between others which are still unripe, and also 

 when pulling is to be preferred. In the West Indies, 

 and to some extent in South America, the hook 

 illustrated by Fig. 63, 6, is the most popular type. 

 Preuss modified the Kamerun type (Fig. 63, c) a little, 

 and suggested the form d (Fig. 63). In Java the 

 author saw a hook used (Fig. 63, e) somewhat resembling 

 the Kamerun form. It was made by a native black- 



o 



