IX 



COCOA-GROWING COUNTRIES 411 



When the plants are old enough to be planted into 

 the field, they are left in the "dung-pots" and put 

 together with these into the plant-hole. When the rains 

 come and pots and soil are thoroughly wetted, the pots 

 break down, and the roots of the cocoa plant have no 

 difficulty in penetrating the pots. Besides, in decom- 

 posing the pots give food to the young plants. 



The only drawback to this system is that the pots 

 sometimes get too hard because the mixture has been 

 made with too much clay, or because they have been 

 dried too much in the sun. 



The plant -holes are generally well prepared and 

 mixed with pen - manure. It is done so at least in 



FIG. 120. Implements used in making "dung-pots." 



Th,! tin-plate b is fitted into the hole in a, which is then filled with the mixture. The 

 instrument c is then put into the hole and turned round, giving the shape. The tin-plate ft 

 helps to remove the "dung-pot" easily from a. 



Middle Java. In this region the soil is not very rich, 

 perhaps in consequence of the coffee culture, which has 

 been practised for a hundred years or longer on these 

 soils. In East Java the soil is more fertile ; sometimes 

 virgin land is used here, and then the planters simply 

 loosen the soil a little before the cocoa is planted. 



As already mentioned, cocoa culture was started 

 about 1880. About that time a few plantations in 

 Middle Java began to plant cocoa on a large scale in 

 the old cocoa fields ; the plantations " Tlogo," " Getas," 

 " Djati Koenggo," all situated near Salatiga, were among 

 the first. 



They all planted with red Criollo cocoa (Fig. 121), 

 this being the only variety abundant in Java, the yellow 

 variety being rare. A small cocoa field at the planta- 



