CHAPTER XI 



ROAD-MAKING AND DRAINING 



The laying-out of roads for a cacao estate should always 

 be one of the first considerations of the planter. If the 

 crop he grows is difficult to carry in the first place to the 

 curing-house, and in the second place to the market, it 

 will easily be seen that the expense attending transit 

 must seriously increase the annual cost of working the 

 plantation. In laying out an estate, therefore, the pro- 

 prietor should reserve traces at right angles to each other 

 for roads to be used for the purpose of collecting his crop, 

 and should select land situated as near as possible to a 

 good main road or railway, so that his produce can easily 

 be placed upon the market. 



On estates on the plains, roads are of course easily made, 

 but if situated on the hill-side the work is somewhat more 

 difficult ; but still, even then it is better to allow plenty 

 of space and to make good roads at once, so as to give easy 

 access to every part of a plantation. Hill-side roads are 

 not difficult to make, once the principle is understood ; 

 but, as with pruning, the work can hardly be described, 

 and is best learnt by practice under the tuition of an 

 experienced hand. 



Land taken up by roads is by some planters thought to 

 be wasted, and many are satisfied with planting the whole 

 ground without providing anything which can definitely be 

 called a road. The economy of having a proper system of 

 roads is, however, easily understood, as the loss on the 

 number of trees which would be planted on the land 

 occupied by the road is more than recouped to the planter 

 by the accessibility the roads afford when pursuing any 



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