225 



Shading. 



'd' 



With regard to permanent shade, I am inclined to agree in toto 

 with Mr. Lockett whose system is to pick out the richest land which 

 is most protected from wind, cultivate this highly, protect it from 

 wind by planting strong growing trees to windward, but practically 

 plant nothing as a permanent shade ; this I believe to be sound 

 cultivation, and Mr. Lockett's results demonstrate it. 



The necessity for good drainage cannot be too strongly 

 impressed on the cocoa planters of St. Mary. The heavy, retentive 

 nature of the soil points to this as a primary necessity of cultivation. 

 Many valuable years will be saved in the life of the cocoa tree if 

 this is accepted as a fact, and the drainage properly planned and 

 executed before the planting of the tree instead of after as has 

 been often done in many cases. 



The necessity of shading for young plants need not b^ 

 emphasised, on the other hand, the evil of too much shade should 

 be carefully avoided as it results in lanky feeble plants. When 

 establishing young fields of cocoa, I think more use might be made 

 of the ground cocoe — (Colocasia esculenta) ; this plant seems 

 admirably adapted for the conservation of moisture and the 

 keeping down of noxious weeds, some planters allow their 

 labourers free use of the land between young bananas and cocoa 

 for the purpose of planting this vegetable and judging from 

 appearances it seems to do admirably what I have just claimed 

 for it without in any way reducing the fertility of the soil, and the 

 extra cultivation which is willingly given by the people growing 

 the cocoes must be of the highest benefit to the close, heavy soils 

 in St. Mary. 



I noticed that usually the varieties of cocoa with red colouring 

 matter on the pods seem to have recovered their vigour more 

 quickly than the yellow varieties. In many places, particularly 

 with the small settlers, I noticed that the cocoa cultivation is very 

 crowded with bananas and other economic plants, this may be the 

 most profitable way of utilizing an acre of land, if so, there can be 

 no objection to it; but it would be as well if planters and peasantry 

 were to decide which kind of cultivation they think best bananas, 

 chocolate, or chocolate with just as many bananas as are useful 

 for shading purposes and not to try to get £20 worth of cocoa and 

 £20 worth of bananas per acre per annum, and succeed in getting 

 £10 worth of neither. 



In many cases good cocoa trees are prevented from bearing 

 to anything like their full capacity by bananas, which are managed 

 in such a way (or perhaps it would be more correct to say— not 

 managed at all) as to give only such poor bananas, and so late in 

 the year, that I am sure the return per acre would be better if the 

 bananas were retained only just in such numbers as would be useful 

 for helping to shade the thinner parts of the cocoa field. It is 

 exceedingly hard to estimate the yield per acre of cocoa fields in 

 Jamaica, and that yield does not compare even on the estimate 



