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of the Department will also tell you that there could not be a better 

 site for the entry of boring beetles and such like insect pests than 

 the unprotected wounds left by bad pruning. The more intelligent 

 planters in Dominica use tar, and also fill up with clay any holes 

 or deep depressions that may be found in the tree whereby water 

 might collect or insects get shelter. As regards manure, in days 

 gone by the greater part of the exports of Dominica came from the 

 peasant proprietors who had not the advantage of having brought 

 before them as in the case now, the scientific and technical know- 

 ledge of the Imperial Department of Agriculture; they allowed 

 their trees to grow as they might, and did not manure them, with 

 the result that the trees have deteriorated very considerably. The 

 manure that is found most useful in regard to cocoa cultivation is 

 exactly the same that is found most useful in cane, and indeed in 

 almost any, cultivation, that is farmyard manure. There can be 

 no better manure, not only from its chemical constituents, but also 

 its mechanical effects : it improves the soil whilst it provides 

 food for the trees. But where you have estates far in the in- 

 terior or on steep hillsides, and with a few animals, it is almost 

 impossible to obtain sufficient farmyard manure, and in such in- 

 stances it is necessary that artificial manure should be used. 

 Hence the Dominica estates used basic slag, which contains phos- 

 phate and some free lime, and nitrogenous manures in the form of 

 nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia. But in regard to nitro- 

 genous manures it must be remembered that in Dominica, St. Lucia 

 and other such Islands an immense quantity can be got in the 

 forest lands by using dead leaves, lopped shrubs, and grass as a 

 mulch for trees, and afterwards by forking this decayed vegetation 

 into the soil. There is also a loss of nitrogen attendant on the 

 cultivation of land in the tropics, and it must be restored by the 

 use of farmyard manure, by green dressing, or in some other way. 

 Mr. Hudson recommends keeping a cocoa plantation thoroughly 

 cleared of weeds. That is opening up the question brought before 

 the last Conference by Dr. Watts who advised that in cocoa and 

 similar cultivations the land should not be kept entirely free of 

 weeds, but that the weeds should be allowed to grow for a time 

 and then cut down ; so that the cultivation would practically get 

 a green dressing. That is the system that has been universally 

 adopted in Dominica for many years, and it would appear to me 

 to be the one best suited to local conditions. There is a matter 

 which I omitted to allude to and which may be regarded as one of 

 the main causes of the small crops now got from peasant holdings. 

 In removing the pod from a cocoa tree it is necessary that a por- 

 tion of the stem attached should be left on the tree, but the igno- 

 rant peasant, instead of cutting the pod, wrings it off, with the 

 result that the little bud at the end of the stem which will supply 

 the future pod is torn off, so that in time the bearing portions of 

 the stem are materially reduced in number. This is a matter to 

 which Agricultural Instructors in Dominica and other islands should 

 call the attention of peasant proprietors. 



