42 COCOA 



masters, only work when the fancy takes them, we 

 must take our chance of finding someone doing each 

 of the many kinds of work that make up the whole 

 business of cocoa production. 



Now that we are in the midst of well-grown cocoa 

 trees that are ready to yield a harvest, let us have a 

 little talk about the general methods of bringing the 

 crop to this stage in the older producing countries, and 

 see how far those methods are practised by the newest 

 competitors, the Gold Coast farmers, who have so 

 rapidly won fame as the biggest cocoa producers in 

 the world. 



The first step towards creating a cocoa farm is 

 known as 



CLEARING. In common with most sites suitable 

 for cocoa cultivation, this land on which we are now 

 standing was originally occupied by tropical jungle. 

 A good clearing is made by cutting down all under- 

 growth, felling all trees, removing as much of the 

 valuable timber as can be transported by available 

 labour, setting light to the remaining debris, and 

 ultimately grubbing out roots when the bonfire has 

 done its work and the ashes are cool. 



The Gold Coast farmers are not ambitious to make 

 a good clearing; their idea is to get rid of forest en- 

 cumbrances with as little trouble as possible. They 

 cut down the undergrowth, and fell only the small trees 

 that can easily be removed for firewood; the burn-off 

 is made with the big trees still standing. There are 

 numbers of the old forest trees, as you see, towering 

 above the cocoa trees around us; unfortunately, most 

 of them are cotton trees, the best-loved haunt of an 

 insect that is among the cocoa tree's deadliest enemies. 



PLANTING. Cocoa trees are raised from seed. 



