10 PLANTING AND SHADING. 



and certainly the cheapest and easiest method of establishing a^ 

 Cacao estate., The system may be briefly described as follows : — • 



The peasant enters into a contract to plant the land with 

 Cacao trees, and receives for his labour, the use of the land for 

 the purpose of growing annual crops of provisions, phi>s a fixed 

 price per tree, to be paid him at the end of five or six years 

 when the Cacao trees commence to bear, and the land becomes 

 useless for gardening purposes. For many years, and to the 

 present day, this system has been generally adopted in Trinidad. 

 In 1889 an Ordinance or Law was passed controlling such 

 contracts, and now, each contract has to be signed before the 

 Magistrate of the district, and its general provisions have- 

 proved very effective. 



The sum to be paid per tree, varies in accordance with the 

 situation, and the supply of labour ; but generally ranges from, 

 15 cents to 25 cents per tree, or even a little more. 



One of the greatest disadvantages of planting by the- 

 contract system, is the certainty of having no great care exercised 

 in selecting the seed for producing plants, The peasant's 

 interest is to get the trees to grow, and he knows well that the 

 inferior varieties are hardier than those which produce the 

 finest Cacao, consequently there is great temptation for him to 

 use the seed of inferior varieties for planting. 



This of course may be obviated by the planter supplying 

 the seed, or the plants, but even then, it is not always possible 

 or convenient to properly supervise the planting operations, so 

 that the chances are that after all, inferior varieties will be 

 planted. 



On the other hand, a proprietor cannot possibly plant as 

 cheaply as a contractor, as the latter is better able to dispose of 

 the ground provisions in the local market, and thus pay himself 

 for his labour. Notwithstanding this fact, there are not a few 

 proprietors who prefer to plant by " day-labour" rather thaa. 

 encourage the contractor to follow a squatting existence for 

 some ye&rs upon land, which he is often found unwilling to leave 

 at the termination of his contract. With a dishonest contractor 

 a proprietor often loses one or two seasons ; as, it is frequently 

 found that men will take land, grow one or two catch crops, and 

 instead of planting Cacao, disappear ! ! As contractors are for 

 the moat part drawn from the labouring classes, the proprietor 

 has no remedy, for in the attempt to recover, he is simply 

 sustaining further loss without the slightest possibility of 

 obtainingthe value of the crops taken from the land. 



Cacao is certainly benefited by intermediate cultivation 

 between the row of trees in their younger stages, provided the- 



