Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-05-10
A Cocoa Plantation I'm Dutch Guiana.

To enter Commeweyne River we
were first obliged to retrace a portion
of the rout by which had arrived three
DAYS before, and to follow the down.
ward course of the Surinam River for
about eight miles, passing the same OBJ
jects, no more wholly new, but now
more interesting than before, because
nearer and better understood. Here is
plantation, seen by glimpses through
the mangrove scrub that borders the
rivers bank; narrow creek, at the
mouth of which several mOOred barges
and half-submerged corials are gathered,
gives admittance to the heart of the es-
tate. 1t is a vast cOcOa-grove where
YOU NAV wander at will under $50
continuous acres of green canOpy-that
is if you are willing to jump over any
number of small brimming bitches, and
to cross the wider irrigation trenches
on bridges, the best of which is simply
a round and slippery tree trunk, excel
lently adapted, no doubt, to the naked
feet of negro labOrer, but upon which
no European boot or shoe can hope to
maintain an instant's hold. Huge poles,
some yellow, some red-the former
color is, l am told, indicative of bet
ter quality-dangle i'm your face and
dispel the illusion by which you might,
at the first sight of growth and foliage
around you, have fancied yourself in
the midst of remarkably fine alder
tree thicket; while from distance to
distance broad-boughed trees of the
kind called by the negroes coffee MAN.
ma," from the shelter they afford the
plantations of that bush, spread their
thick shade high aloft and protect the
cOcoa-bushes and their fruit from the
direct actions of the burning sun.
Moisture, warmth, and shade-these
are the primary and most essential con-
ditiOns for the well-dOings of a cocoa
estate. Innumerable trenches, dug
with mathematical eXactitude of alter
nate line and interspace, supply the
first requisite; temperature that, i'm
i'm wind-fenced situation like this,
bears close resemblance for humid
warmth to that of an accurately shut
hOt-house, assures the second; and the
coffee mamma, dense-leaved tree, not
unlike our beech, guarantees the third.
Thus favored, a Surinam cocoa crop
is pretty sure to be an abundant one.
Ever and anon, where the green laby-
rynth is at its thickest, you come
across a hurley Creole negro, busily
engaged plucking the large pods from
the bOughs with his left hand, and hold
ing it in so, while with sharp cutlass
held in his right he dexterously cuts
the upper part of the thick outer cover
ing, then shakes the Shiny agglOmera.
tiOn of seed and white burr clinging
to it into a basket set close to him on
the ground. A single labOrer will i'm
this fashion collect nearly four hundred
pounds weight of seed in the course of
day. When full, the baskets are car
ried off on the heads of the assistant
field-women, or, if taken from the re-
moter parts of the plantation, are flOated
down i'm boats or cOrials to the brick
paved courtyard adjoining the planters
dwelling-house. where the nuts are
cleansed and dryed by simple and mex
pensive processes, not Unlike those in
use for the coffee berry; after which
nothing remains but to fill the sacks
and send them off to their market
across the seas. A Guiana cocoa plan
tatiOn is an excellent investment. The
first outlay is not heavy, nor is the
maintainance of the plantation expen-
sive-the number of labOrers bearing an
average proportion of one to nine to
that of the acres under cultivation. The
work required is kind that negroes,