Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

CULTIVATION OF THE CACAO BEAN 39 thus, for a small estate of 20 acres one will need 6,000 plants. Robert Louis Stevenson in his Vailima Letters gives an amusing account of the planting when he introduced cacao into Samoa in 1891. “ You should have seen us ; the veranda was like an Irish bog, our hånds and faces were bedaubed with soil.” The seeds are carefully shaded and watered in the nursery and are ready for transplanting about two months later, when they are from 1 ft. to 2 ft. high. The transplanting should be done just at the beginning of the wet season, after the first rains have fallen. Mr. W. MacLellan-Wilson has admirably conveyed the young planter’s excitement during this process ; it is true he talks of coffee, but his remarks apply equally to cacao. “ Forgetting to drink his xnorning cup of coffee, neglect-ing to ring even the first bell (which by the way is an old bit of railway iron) to call his workers, he rushes off to the plantation to see if the rain has made any impression on the still empty coffee holes. Yes, there are marks where the welcome water filled the holes to varying depths of two, three, and four inches. That is surely sufficient moisture to start on ! He thrusts his hånd into the soil, incidentally in his excitement wiping it afterwards on his pyjama pants, and finds that it was a good soaking rain and the fates are propitious for planting. The excitement of that day he will never forget! From the nursery to the field, from the field to the nursery he ran ; yes, actually ran ! He re-arranged his men not once, but often, so that the digging out of plants, the carrying and the planting should have a relative balance in the operations. Finding finally a really careful native for the digging out in the nursery, the planter confined his attention entirely to tbe planting-out process. From hole to hole he danced, keeping a watchful eye upon his men, ensuring that