124 
FIRST BOOK 
COCOA. 
1. It was near Cliristmas-time when the teacher 
and his boys went to the cocoa plantation. The 
large fruit pods were very pretty in their red and 
yellow colours, and seemed quite ready to be 
gathered. They hung on very short stalks from 
the stems and thick branches of the trees. 
2. The planter told the boys why the trees 
grew so well after he had planted them. He 
said : 
" You see that they are in a valley, so that they 
are ua a sheltered spot^ and they are shaded by 
those tall trees. The soil is deep, too, as it ought 
to be, because the trees have long tap-roots. 
3. " This is their sixth year, and they are now 
in full bearing. When they were young, and 
much smaller, I had bananas between the rows, 
to shade them, and to give fruit until the cocoa 
crops were ready." 
4. You have two gatherings in a year, do you 
not?" asked the teacher. 
Yes; the chief crops are at Easter and Christ- 
mas, but the trees bear more or less all the year 
round," was the reply. 
5. The boys watched some men cutting the 
fruit. The pods were cut off by a sharp knife; 
great care being taken not to pull the stalks on 
