148 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



AucusT 30, 1902. 





^t^^m 



WEST INDIAN FRUIT. 



NOTES FROM TOBAGO. 



Mr. D. Macgillivray, a well kiKjwn ivsidnit of 

 Tobago, has contributed the following notes on gnitting 

 Jind budding nutmeg and fruit tree.s. They atlbrd an 

 interesting sketch of the difficulties that are usually 

 met with in these Colonies, difficulties, it is hoped, 

 that will eventually disappear by moans of the ciicula- 

 tion of the A(jri rait aval News and other plainly 

 worded pul)lications of the Department, and also by the 

 advice and assistance of the Curators of the Botanic 

 Stations and of the travelling Agiicultural Instructors 

 being generally utilized : — 



NUTMEGS. 



I have seen notes in the Xeivx about grafting nutmegs. 

 I once took a plant in a bamboo jiot tidni niv ninseiy 

 (male or female, I knew not) and grafted it by aiiinoaeh to 

 a yoiuig sueker of an old female tree. Tlii.s I have planted 

 out, but it will never make a .sliai)ely tree. The nutmeg, 

 like the cacao, tlirow.s out suckers of two kinds. ( ))ie the 

 shape of a lateral branch, the other tree-sliaped. J have 

 tried transplanting a young male underneath a female having 

 the trec-sliaped suckers and grafting by aiii>ioacli hut failed. 

 I have gone in for luUmegs on a small .scale Their present 

 .small coninieicial value does not encourage one to go in for 

 them extensively, and my soil, a light sandy loam, is very 

 susceptihle to the efl'ects of the sun in the iiincli of the dry 

 .season. Some of my large bearing trees were nearly killed 

 out two seasons ago. 



i.i:.\FTiN(; OK p.uiiDi.Ni; souk oi;.\.N(;es. 



About twenty years ago I sowed seeds of a specially 

 sweet orange. ] raised about thirty and jilanted them out. 

 The trees came to maturity and bore sour oranges. The 

 majtn-ity of them came into bearing in seven m- eight years. 

 Seven of them grew to be large trees but did not bear 

 until they were twelve to fifteen years old, and then they 

 gave me very fine sweet oranges. I cut down .some of the 

 sour orange trees .'5 feet from the ground, allowed .selected 

 shoots to grow two on each stump, and, in the ca.sc of two 

 trees, liave ring-budded them with .sliaddock. One tree has 

 succeeded admirably : the l)uds sprang and the branches arc 

 now about 10 feet jiigh and will, I hojie, soon bear. The 

 other ring-budding (two buds on two seijarate suckers) took 

 and Jived, but the buds would not si>ring. I have since 



then done some bud<ling of the ordinary kind, cutting a bud 

 from the shaddock and in.serting it in a cut in the bark of the 

 scion. Several have taken, but in oidy one case have I 

 been able to induce the bud to spring. 1 am an extremely 

 green amateur with very little time from my daily work to 

 devote to agriculture. I now write in the hope that some of 

 the correspondents of the Department, e.\i>erts in citrus culti- 

 vation, may be able to point out the cause of my failure. Are 

 there barren and fertile buds on a branch, and how can they 

 be distinguished ? Or is my experience of barren buds the 

 result cf taking buds from a young tree that has not yet 

 borne ? 



I may mention that any information conveyed to me can- 

 not be too elementarj', as I have never witnessed the operation 

 of grafting or budding by any one, and I f eel sure my metliod.s 

 are clum.sy. 1 lia\e succeeded in grafting several mangos 

 'by approach,' but in 'Crown' and other kiiids of grafting I 

 have always failed. 



L.\UU.\N POMELO. 



The 'shaddock' whidi I have been trying to [ rojia- 

 gate is a thornle.ss (me and the fruit is .seedless, the 

 finest .shaddock, .Mr. Hart .say.s, that he has ever seen. 

 It is really a Lalnian pomelo sent from Labnan by 

 "Mv. U.sshcr, a former Lieutcnant-Oovernor of Tobago, to the 

 late Ml-. 1). Ycatcs here. ilr. Yeates kindly gave me a [ilant 

 grown from a cutting under gla.ss. It bore splendi<l fruit for 

 some years and then .succumbed to an attack of fungus at 

 the loot. Fortunately, at the ^uggestion of Mr. Hart, when 

 the tree was in full vigour, I sent him some cuttings. From 

 these he succeeded in making three grafts, one of which he 

 kindly sent inc. The other two are thriving trees at 

 St. Clair. I may mention that I was recently particularly 

 gratified by receiving from Mr. Hart a budded jilant of the 

 shaddock together with two orange plants (navel and )iine- 

 apple) all of which I have planted out as C'oronation Tree.s. 

 With regard to the name, I prefer to call my plant iiomelu 

 instead of shaddock. The ordinary West Indian shaddock is 

 a very degenerate fruit. 



I have always thought it a disgrace to Tobago to have 

 so few good fruit trees. Now that there is a prospect of 

 a i)ro.siierous future for good West Indian fruit, every a-ssis- 

 taiu-e and guidaine ought to l)e given to our people here in 

 the Work of grafting and budding so that in the future no 

 one will dream of raising a mere seedling for the .s;ikc of 

 its fruit. 



