COCOA-GROWING COUNTRIES 321 



at a distance of 10 to 15 cm. (or ^ foot), but generally 

 more seeds are placed all over the plant-hole. 



Until the little plants are about 1 foot high they 

 require much care : weeds must be removed as they 

 appear, and white ants must be kept away. 



Planting distance. The natives generally plant 

 very closely, and often put five or six plants on a 

 surface of about 1 m. (9 feet square). The trees also 

 often stand in groups of two or three, and each group 

 at 1 m. (3 feet) distance. These trees make spindling 

 stems, and branch as high as 8 or 11 feet. The produce 

 is small, and when they are fifteen or twenty years old 

 they must be replaced by others. 



In old European plantations the trees also stand 

 at small distances, but on very rich soil the yield, never- 

 theless, is good ; on ordinary soil, however, no more than 

 400 or 500 kilograms per hectare are obtained. In the 

 new plantations of Boa Entrada the trees stand at a 

 distance of 3*50 to 4 m. (12 to 13 feet). 



Chevalier believes and he mentions Preuss as being 

 of the same opinion that with a planting distance of 

 3 to 4 m. (10 to 13 feet) two trees may be left in a plant- 

 hole, 1 so that there would be 1200 to 1500 trees per 

 hectare. At present most European planters leave two 

 or three plants so near each other that their stems seem 

 to be branches of the same stem. 



Nurseries. Nurseries are established in shaded 

 places on rich soil, almost always in the neighbourhood 

 of the buildings. The seeds are laid out at a distance 

 of 20 to 30 cm. (8 to 12 inches apart). 



According to Chevalier the number of young plants 

 which die or do not develop is 30 per cent in the first 

 year, 15 per cent of the rest in the second, 6 per cent of 

 the rest in the third, and 2 per cent in the fourth. These 

 figures show that in the soil of San Thome the young 

 plant has considerable difficulty in forming its roots, 



1 I think Chevalier is mistaken herein. As stated in Chapter VI. I cannot 

 see any advantage in planting two cocoa trees at the same spot, and I am 

 unaware that Preuss ever recommended this method. 



