260 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



AuousT 21, 1909. 



WEST INDIAN FRUIT. 



'PINK DISEASE' OF CACAO IN 

 ST. LUCIA. 



In Januan- of the present year, hcveral plots of 

 cacao in St. Lucia were found to be sc-rioiisly affected 

 by this disease. The plants were, in consequence, 

 treate<I aceordino; to the advice given in PamphleC 

 No. ,54 of the Department, entitled Firiu/us Diseases 

 of Caacj) and Sanitation of Cacao Orchards. Success 

 has followed the adoption of the measures there 

 suggested, as will be seen from the following account, 

 which should be supplemented by reference to the 

 above-mentioned pamphlet : — 



The disease is caused by a fungu.s ((Jarticiuni lilnco- 

 fiiscu(n). Tlie chief symptoms are the occurrenco of ])ink 

 incrustations on the woody branches ; these generally cover 

 the younger ones, while in the case of those which are fairly 

 old, it is usually limited to the damper and more shaded 

 sides. The final effect is to cause splitting of the bark, which 

 ultimately peels off. The fungus spreads activelj' during the 

 wet season and in damp, shaded situations. The harm caused 

 by it is not always direct, but as it jn'ovides openings in the 

 tissue for the entrance of .spores of very harmful fungi such 

 as Nectria, Dip/od/a, etc., it is very impoi-tant that it should 

 be kept in check. 



The remedial measures consist in washing the affected 

 branches with a lime-sulphur wash, wliii-h is prepared as 

 follows ; A mixture consisting of 7i If), of slaked lime and 

 2h 111. of flowers of sulphur is boiled in 10 gallons of water 

 until it becomes orange in colour. This, when cold, is well 

 rubbed on the atfected branches wherever iIh; fungus is seen 

 to be present. In addition, all the younger brandies that 

 have been killed should be cut off and burned ; it may also 

 be advisable to remove the more badly affected of the 

 older ones. 



The successful adoption of these measures in the case 

 mentioned above Wds reported by the Agricultural Instructor 

 in St. Lucia, after examination of the attacked plants during 

 one of his visits to the district in which tliey were growing. 



PINE-APPLE INDUSTRY IN INDIA. 



The following information ap))cars in the Agri- 

 cidtural Juiirnal of I iaH.a for April J DO!) : — 



In recent years, the demand for Indian grown pine- 

 apples has so greatly increased that an effoit should be made 

 to establish this indu.stry on a commercial scale. 



The pineapple is grown extensively in many parts of 

 India and ])urnia. On the ^Malabar Coast, in Northern 

 Kengal, in Assam and in Durnia, it produces fruit of very 



good quality. On the Kliasi Hills in Assam, it grows 

 excellently and yields a tine fruit. There has been no 

 particular effort made to develop the cultivation of the fruit 

 on a commercial basis. Therefore, pine-ap[i!es from the 

 Straits Settlements, Ceylon and Mauritius, find a ready .sale 

 in India at remunerative prices. 



A warm, moist atmosphere, a fairly high rainfall, 

 a friable soil and a porous subsoil appear to be best suitable 

 for pine-apples in India. They thrive well on soils which have 

 been improved, in forests, by partial clearing and by the 

 natural addition through rainfall of leaf mould. A friable 

 moist soil with a fairly high proportion of organic manure is 

 apparently essential for successful cultivation. 



In Bengal, the season for planting out pine-apples is 

 August. The plant there flowers in February and .March, 

 and its fruit ripens in .July or August. In September and 

 October, it makes its perfect growth. 



The leaves yield a good fibre. In the London market 

 it fetches about £."50 per ton. In the Rangpur District of 

 Eastern Bengal and Assam, the fibre is largely used by the 

 shoe-makers as string ; in the Southern Mahralha country 

 and Goa, it is used for necklaces. The Fibre Expert to the 

 (loverninent of Eastern Bengal and Assam is, however, of 

 opinion that the extraction of fibre from pine-apple jilants is 

 not likely to be an extensive enterprise in any part of India 



VARIETIES OP CACAO. 

 In the Wi'sl India Coininittec Circulirr^ for July 

 20. lifOO, there appears the first of a series of articles 

 by 31 r. J. H. Hart, F.L.S., on Cacao. In this, the 

 characteristics of the different varieties of Theohrotna 

 Cacao and T. pcntagona are set forth in a useful table, 

 from which they may be summarized as follows: — 



T. pentagona, or alligator cacao, is mainly distinguished 



1 T. Cacao by the fact that the fruit is covered with 



y excrescences, while it possesses five distinctly 



i. Of T. Cacao, there are three well-marked 



from 



many warty 

 raised ribs. 



classes; the Criollo ('native'), Forastero (' foreign '), and 

 Cal.ibacillo ('calabash-shaped ") ; the first of these has light- 

 coloured 'beans,' in the second they vary in colour, and are 

 contained in a rough, ridged pod, in the last they are dark- 

 coloured, in a smooth oval pod. 



The kinds of Ci-iollo are three : Trinidad Criollo, Vene- 

 znehui Criollo, and Nicaraguan t'riollo : the fruit of the first 

 is thin-skinned and bottle-necked, and those of the last two 

 thick-skinned and high-shouldered, a mark of distinction 

 between the.'e being that the former is sometimes pointed, 

 while the latter is not. Each of these kinds is divided into 



