88 EVERYDAY LIFE ON A 



beds are dug, in which the cocoa beans are 

 placed, about a thousand in each bed. Great 

 care is taken to throw away the end beans of 

 each pod, as these produce inferior plants. It 

 is wonderful to see the rate of speed at which 

 the plants grow. They remain in the nurseries 

 three or four months, and are then transplanted to 

 the holes which meanwhile are being prepared for 

 them. The transplanter which I have pre- 

 viously described being used for the work of 

 moving. 



Strange to say the holes are not filled in with 

 the soil originally taken out ; for what reason I 

 cannot learn. This work of supply is one of 

 the most important on the Estate, especially in 

 these days of cocoa disease, when in some 

 districts, hundreds of trees in one field have 

 had to be cut out, and destroyed ; and if they 

 were not at once replaced, the proprietor would 

 soon find his profits disappear. When I use 

 the term "field" you must not imagine a 

 division of land fenced in by walls or hedges, 

 it is here used simply to designate different 

 divisions of the Estate with almost imaginary 

 boundaries. These divisions are used for the 

 convenience of classifying work. 



Holing, though one of the most important, 

 is also one of the most unpopular of the works. 

 The surface of the ground becomes almost as 

 hard as a brickbat owing to the great heat. 



