very best he can, but he does not get much
encouragement.

MANUFACTURER: How is that?

PLANTER: There is insufficient difference between the price
of the best and the common.

MANUFACTURER: Unfortunately that is beyond any individual
manufacturer's control. The price is controlled by the
European and New York markets. I am afraid that as long as
there is so large a demand by the public for cheap cocoas so
long will there be keen competition amongst buyers for the
commoner kinds of beans.

PLANTER: The manufacturer should keep some of his own men on
the spot to do his buying. They would discriminate carefully,
and the differences in price offered would soon educate the
planters!

MANUFACTURER: True, but as each manufacturer requires cacao
from many countries and districts, this would be a very
costly enterprise. Several manufacturers have had their own
buyers in certain places in the Tropics for some years, and
it is generally agreed that this has acted as an incentive to
the growers to improve the quality.[8] But in the main we
have to look to the various Government Agricultural
Departments to instruct and encourage the planters in the use
of the best methods.

[7] Cameroon cacao sometimes has an objectionable odour and
flavour, which may be due to its being fermented in an
unripe condition, for, as Dr. Fickendey says: "Cameroon
cacao has to be harvested unripe to save the pods from
brown rot."

[8] The Director of Agriculture, in a paper on _The Gold
Coast Cocoa Industry_, says: "We are indebted to Messrs.
Cadbury Bros., of Bournville, for a lead in this
direction. They have several agents in the colony who
purchase on their behalf only the best qualities at an
enhanced price, and reject all that falls below the
standard of their requirements."

[Illustration: THE WORLD'S CACAO PRODUCTION.
(Mean of 5 years, 1914-1918. Average world production 295,600 tons per
annum.) Diagram showing relative amounts produced by various countries.
The shaded parts show production of British Possessions.]

CHAPTER IV

CACAO PRODUCTION AND SALE

When the English Commander, Thomas Candish, coming into the
Haven Guatulco, burnt two hundred thousand tun of cacao, it
proved no small loss to all New Spain, the provinces
Guatim