336 COCOA 



CHAP. 



aforesaid, the Owner shall pay to the Contractor at the rate 

 specified in clause fifteen with such deductions as mentioned in 

 clause sixteen. 



In Witness Whereof the said Owner and Contractor have 

 hereunto set their hands in the presence of 



Contractor. 

 Stipendiary Justice of the Peace. 



Owner. 



The sum paid per tree varies according to the situa- 

 tion and the supply of labour, but generally ranges from 

 15 cents to 25 cents (7^d. to Is.) per tree. 



The contractor lives during the time the contract 

 lasts as a farmer on the land. He builds a very primi- 

 tive little house, clears the forest, and plants the crops 

 which he considers most useful for his purpose, as 

 plantains, bananas, cassava, cow-peas, tanias, some- 

 times also beans and ground-nuts or vegetables, and 

 between them the cocoa and its shade trees. 



When, in accordance with the contract, the time has 

 come usually after four years the owner inspects the 

 land with the contractor, the number of bearing trees 

 and the number of those not yet bearing are figured out, 

 and the owner pays out to the contractor what he owes 

 him. 



This system of planting by contract has its advantages 

 and its disadvantages. It is certainly a cheap and easy 

 way to get a certain area planted with cocoa, but the 

 difficulty is, of course, to have it planted carefully. 

 And while with an honest contractor the planter has a 

 good chance of getting a well-planted area with healthy 

 trees, he may be badly betrayed by a dishonest one : 

 inferior types of cocoa may be planted ; the young 

 plants may be treated carelessly, either being hindered 

 in their growth by too closely planted intercrops or by 

 insufficient weeding, or by not being regularly freed 

 from insects as borers ; several plants may grow so 

 slowly that one or more years are lost ; or it may even 

 happen that the contractor takes the land, grows one or 

 two catch crops and disappears without planting cocoa. 



