GOING TO MARKET 55 



comparatively big way of business as buyers and 

 shippers. 



The European factories buy, for the most part, 

 direct from the growers. They seldom have any deal- 

 ing with the freesellers, but their clients sometimes 

 include a middleman who has the reputation for select- 

 ing the best of his produce to offer them. 



On arrival at Koforidua, we notice that the carriers 

 are flocking into the town, in spite of the wiles of the 

 freesellers en route. Here the procession scatters. 

 One group of carriers stops at the shanty store of a 

 native middleman, two or three groups turn into the 

 compound of one European factory, other groups 

 into the compound of a European factory opposite 

 or a few yards up the road. The majority, guided by 

 the farmer heads of families, take their loads to one 

 or other of the European factories, and the biggest 

 crowd congregates in the compound of the white com- 

 petitor who is this day offering the highest price for 

 cocoa beans. 



At the European factories the buying is all done 

 by white men. Each load of beans offered for sale is 

 examined, and if the quality is up to the firm's " pas- 

 sable " standard, the load is weighed, the correct 

 weight and corresponding value are called out and 

 entered on a slip of paper, and the beans are turned 

 out into one of the firm's sacks; the native who has 

 sold the cocoa beans takes the slip of paper to a white 

 cashier, in an office close by, receives payment, ties 

 up the notes in a handkerchief or tucks them into a 

 fold of his toga, collects his carriers and starts off on 

 the return tramp to his farm. 



Any beans which are not considered sufficiently 

 dry for packing are spread out in the sun. There are 



