Page:The food of the Gods - A Popular Account of Cocoa.djvu/80

Rh injury to the tree. Men and women all carry cutlasses, the one instrument needful for all work on the estate, serving not only for reaping



the lower pods, but for pruning and weeding, or "cutlassing," as the process of clearing away the weed and brush is called.



Gathering the pods is heavy work, always undertaken by men. The pods are collected from beneath the trees and taken to a convenient