Vol. VII. No. 161. 



THE AGllIOULTUEAL NEWS. 



197: 



THE GRAFTING OF CAOAO. 



The propagation of cacao by the method of graft- 

 ing WIS tried in Jamaica some years ago. Approach 

 grafting of cacao has also been practised in Doiiiinica 

 for the past few years with the most promising results, 

 and similar trials have been marje in Trinidad, and more 

 recently at St. Lucia. A paper read at the West 

 Indian Agricultural Conference of 1907 by Mr. Joseph 

 Jones, Curator of the Dominica Botanic Station, on 

 this subject, appeared in the West Indian BaUetin, 

 Vol. VIII, p. 187, and was reprinted in the Agricultural 

 News, Vol. VII, p. 85. 



The advantages that wduld be obtained liy thf use of 

 grafting methods in the propagation of cacao as compared 

 with the raising of young plant.s from seed arc similar to 

 those that have resulted in the case of the mango. Owing to 





characteristics, and the liest types may therefore be selected 

 for reproductive purposes, with every assurance that they will 

 be perpetuated. 



A field of grafted cacao plants would naturally co.st more 

 at the start than a field of seedling plants, but provided that 

 the former are grafted frrmi prolific and diseasei'esisting 

 jiarent trees, the additional cost would be more than recovered 

 i y the increased returns obtained [ler acre. A quicker return, 

 too, would probably be obtained, since grafted plants 

 should fruit earlier than seedlings. If fields were restricted 

 to plants of one selected strain, the beans would all require 

 the same degree of fermentation, and this operation would 

 conse(juently be simplified. Another effect which, it is 

 l.ielieved, would result fiom the ado[ition of grafting method.s 

 in the propagation of cacao is that the grafting may tend to 

 dwarf the plants. This would be an advantage in islands 

 which suffer much from windy weather. 



In the work done at the Dominica Botanic 

 Station, Alligator cacao {Theoliroma peutai/ona) 

 has been worked on Forastero stocks, and a num- 

 ber of plants of an excellent type of Forastero 

 have also been grafted on hardy C'alabacillo 

 stocks. The method followed is indicated in the 

 acconqjanying illustration, (Fig. 3) and was 

 described in the AijrlcHltural Sews of March 

 i\ last. A tree of good type is selected, and 

 rough stages are erected round it at varying 

 heights in such positions as to obtain a maxi- 

 nnim of young shoots which have already been 

 grown in nurseries in bamboo pots. The pots 

 are placed on the stage, young shoots of the 

 cacao trees, which are of the same age and thick- 

 ness as the stocks, are carefully denuded of 

 their leaves at the point where they are to 

 be fitted to the stock, a portion of the bark is 

 removed with a sharp knife from both scion 

 and stock, and the two are carefully liound 

 together with garden tying. 



A small piece of bark is cut from the stem 

 of the scion below the graft so as to make it 

 more dependent on the stock and to hasten 

 its union. The average time required for the 

 process of grafting cacao may be placed at about 

 ten weeks. Over 200 grafted plants were in 

 1 906-7 obtained from two cacao trees of selected 

 type in the Dominica lidtanic (Jarden. 



A photographic illustration will be 

 given in the ne.xt issue of the Agrirultural 

 jVeivs of a grafted cacao tree at Dominica, 

 wdiich at two and a half years old (when 

 the photograph was taken) was bearing 

 a crop of si.xty pods of cacao. 



•^ 



Fi 



!. Gr.vftini: Oai'.\o by Ai'PRo.xch at ])o,mi.\ica 



Botanic Station. 



cross-fertilization, few seedlings are like the pawnt ])lant, and 

 hence it is that seed from a tree which shows excellent liearing 

 and disease-resisting qualities cannot be relied upon to pro- 

 duce young plants as good as the parent tree. A cacao tree 

 produced by a vegetative method of reproduction such as 

 grafting, however, nece.ssarily resendjies the parent in all its 



Timber Trade of British Guiana. 



...I The lliitish (iuiana correspondent of the 



■ ■ ■■ -^j ]\'ist I mini ('ommittee Circular reports that the 

 lumber industry of the colony is coming in for 

 a good deal of attention just now, owing to the increasing 

 price of imported American timbers. A complete .sawing 

 plaTit has just been inii)orted for the North-West district, 

 two mills are at work on the Corentyne coast, and others 

 are being erected elsewhere. The Berbice steam saw-mill 

 has recently secured an order from a well known London firm 

 of furniture manufacturers for 1,000,000 feet of crabwood 

 {Cardpa i/uianen^/s), the hical mahogany, a wood which is 

 hard and durable and takes a tine polish. 



