\'oL. I. No. 2. 



THK AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



21 



CENTRAL AMERICAN RUBBER AS A SHADE FOR CACAO. 



The question of using the Central American 

 ^inhhitr tr<M(C'ii>it ill' ta Hd at led ) as a shade for cacao, 

 was discu.ssed at the Agriculttiral Conference of 1901, 

 (Wrst I,„U,n, Bullet to. Vol. II, pp. 111-118). Dr. 

 Morris in IHSIi reconiniendcd that the tree might be 

 tried for this purpose in Biitisli Honduras. About two 

 years later the suggestion u.is put to the test of an 

 experiment with the 

 result that in No\em- 

 l)er li)00, the Curator 

 of the Botanic Station, 

 Belize, wrote : ' At 

 Kendal on the Settee 

 lliver the cacao plan- 

 tations are thriving 

 well. . . . Casttllvd 

 is planted for shade ; 

 these were, also, in 



gixxi condition 



T'here is not a better 

 tree fur the puqjose.' 

 A Kccoiid experiment 

 was made in Tobago 

 concerning which, 



Cajdain M. SJiort 

 writes on August 2S, 

 1900, (West Indian 

 BaU^tln, Vol. II. 

 1>. 111). 'I find that 

 cacao Ix-ai-s very well 

 under the shafle of 

 i'lisfdhiii. Nino jX'ars 

 ago I planted an acre 

 of rubber and csicao 

 together — the rubber 

 at 24 feet apart, an<l 

 the cacao 12 feet, 

 and so far as I have 

 noticed there is very 

 little, if any differ- 

 ence between the 

 bearing of these wicao 

 trees and those under 

 the shade of the lii'ui 

 Immirfdle. On find- 

 ing this I planted 

 last year fifteen acres 

 in the same manner 

 and there is every 

 reason to expect that 

 in another eiofht or 

 nine years they wil' 



5. The Ckntkal Amkuic.^n Rubber Tree. 



A tree aliout 10 years old, growiirj; in British Honduras from a 

 l>lKitograi)h taken l)y ^U: E. D. >L Huojier of tlie Indian Forest 

 Department. The spiral cuts on the stem indicate the manner in wliiek 

 the trees are taiiperl. 



about 



( \lYil- 



' The 



give a gross return of 

 £30 per acre ? On April 22, of this year, the 

 tor of the Botanic Station, Tobago, writes 

 cultivation of rubber in this island ranks second to 

 cacao. On some estates, especially Richmond, probably 

 there are some of the finest trees in the West 

 Indies. A good quality of rubber obtained from th(;se 



trees realized a high price in the English Market 

 Several estates are j)lanting rubber as shade trees for 

 cacao and they appear to thrive as well as any other 

 sliade tree. Cotfee also bears well under Cnxtilloa.' 

 The (piestion is al.so touched upon in the Report of the 

 Curator of the Botanic Station, Dominica for 1900. 

 After i-emarking on the use of the Central American 



Rubber tree as a shade 

 for cacao in Tobago, 

 he continues. ' That 

 it may be cultivated 

 side by side with 

 eai-ao may be seen at 

 this Station, where 

 cacao trees, within a 

 few feet of it and 

 unfler its shade, con- 

 tinue in health and 

 V>ear good ci'ops.' 



Planters in other 

 parts of the world 

 have not been behind- 

 hand. At the Agi-icul- 

 tural congress held 

 in Java in September 

 1901, Mr. McGillivray 

 recounted his experi- 

 once of planting cacao 

 under ('i(xti.Ufi<( (Dc'-- 

 Trii/ie II J) fl a n ze r , 

 March 1902, p. 146). 

 He ap))ears to have 

 I il.mted the cacao 

 between the Castilloa 

 when the latter were 

 thi-ee years old, as 

 he states ' that in a 

 ( \istiUoa plantation 

 of 10 year-old trees, 

 the seven year old 

 cacao planted be- 

 tween, as well as 

 the OaxtillrKi looked 

 Well ? He I'ccommends 

 planting the Cosfilloa 

 at intervals of 36 feet. 

 It does not neces- 

 sarily- f )llow from 

 these isolated instan- 

 ces that Castilloa is 

 to be recommended as 

 a uni\cr.sal shade for cacao. As is so commonly the case, 

 a method excellently adapted for one locality may be 

 ipiite unsuited to another. We can say however that 

 Central American Rubber has been used with success^ 

 as a sharle tree for cacao in British Honduras, and 

 Tobago, and, so fiir as the published results show, with 

 satisfactoiy results in Java also. 



The illustration is reproduced from the Cantor Lectures on ' Plants yielding Commercial India Rubber' delivered before 

 the Society of iVi-ts, by Dr. Morris, April 189S. 



