CHAPTER XII 



PICKING AND HARVESTING 



This is a very important part of the planter's work. 

 Cacao should always be picked in a way that will not 

 injure the tree, its branches, or the " cushions " on them, 

 from which the flowers and pods are produced. The tools 

 formerly in use for cutting the stalk of the pod, thus 

 severing it from the tree, twenty years ago, and also to-day, 

 are the cutlass or machete, the knife, and the cacao picker 

 and pruner. The latter is shown by Fig. 35 facing page 132. 

 This is a very crude tool, and can hardly be used without 

 doing some damage to the trees, even by the most careful. 

 As the result of movements for the information of the 

 planter, instructions have been issued, lectures given, and 

 bulletins circulated in many countries with a view to 

 showing that the ill-health of trees on estates is largely due 

 to a continued course of mutilation occurring during the 

 working of estates, and arising from the careless and 

 reckless use of the tools mentioned, regardless of con- 

 sequences. These consequences have been pointed out, 

 and considerable improvement has resulted, and an evident 

 desire for further information has been exhibited, which, 

 it is trusted, may be followed by useful results. 



The cutlass is par excellence the favourite and friend of 

 all working in the cacao field. It is made in various forms 

 and qualities, some of which, as in the " razor story," are 

 evidently " made to sell." They have a blade averaging 

 from 16 in. to 18 in. in length, with a wooden handle of 

 some 6 in. The best makers sheathe their blades in 

 leather scabbards, but the commoner makes are carried 

 in the hand, and when resting are often cut into the 



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