148 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



May 9, 19U. 



FRUIT AND FRUIT TREES. 



RECENT WORK ON THE BUDDING 



OF CACAO. 



Although a considerable amount of work has been done 

 on the vegetative propagation of cacao, especially in Dominica 

 where attempts to graft by approach and to propagate by 

 means of patch budding have met vpith considerable success, it 

 is only quite recently that the process of budding known as 

 shield or Thudding has answered satisfactorily. This has 

 occurred in the PhiHppine Islands; and a paper on the results 

 that have been achieved, appears in the Pliiiijipine Agricul- 

 tural Review, for January 19K. 



It is stated in this that the results, so far attained with 

 this kind of budding, have been so uniformly satisfactory on 

 a small scale that it seems highly improbable that the results 

 in larger practice will be different, and it is confidently 

 believed that no cacao jirower who has acquired the art of 

 shield-buddine, and who follows the instruction given in the 

 following paragraphs need hereafter crop a heterogenous lot 

 of .'Aeedling trees. He can work over his entire estate to any 

 single desirable variety, and every budded tree will bear 

 cacao of exactly the same quality. The operation itself is 

 simple, requires a minimum of propagating material, and is 

 easily and rapidly performed. 



After e:vplaining the principles of vegetative propaga- 

 tion and the preparation of grafting wax and tape, the 

 author gives the following instructions: — 



'The budding operations should be performed in the 

 following order: First make a virtical incision in the stock, 

 about 15 to 20 centimetres above the ground: then, at the 

 lower end of this incision, make a horizontal cut so that the 

 resulting wound resembles an inverted x; then, in order to 

 facilitate the insertion of the bud, make a sloping cut upward, 

 below the horizontal cut, and also lift the bark 

 by passing the point of the blade under the bark 

 upward along the vertical incision, " loosening the bark 

 sufficiently to allow the bud to slip into place easily; now cut 

 a bud not less than 4 centimetres long, by passing the knife 

 diagonalh; under the bud, taking special care that it is not cut 

 too thin and that the tissues do not split or tear, which is liable 

 to occur if the knife is dull or if it is held at too great an angle 

 to the bud stick; as a further precaution it is well to hold 

 the tip end of the bud stick toward the body in the act of 

 cutting the bud; now insert the bud and tie firmly, without 

 strangling, with waxed tape, beginniog at the point of 

 insertion and covering the entire incision so that no water 

 can enter. 



'Fourteen to eighteen days after the buds are inserted, 

 the buds should be examined, and where they have taken, 

 the tape should be unwrapped to below the leaf scar and the 

 stock should be "lopped" about 10 centimetres above the bud. 

 This is done by cutting through the stock about one-half to 

 two-thirds with a knife or a pruning saw and bending 

 the tops over. The budded plants should hereafter be 

 examined once every ten days and all wild sprouts on the 

 stock rubbed off. This work is most important, for if it is 

 not attended to, the stock sprouts rapidly gain the upper 

 hand at the expense of the bud, which frequently under .such 

 circumstances fails to grow at all. When the bud has made 

 a growth of 30 or more centimetres, according to the size of 

 the stock, and the wood is well ripened, cut off the stock 

 immediately above the bud union. Paint the wound care- 

 fully with white lead or some other oil paint in order 



to exclude borers and fungi. If the buds fail to make 

 straight upright growths they should be staked and tied; 

 split bamboo stakes are very serviceable for this purpose. 



'Large seedlings may, of course, be top-worked by 

 heading them back and budding the young sprouts.' 



CACAO FERMENTATION IN TRINIDAD. 



In the March issue of Tnqjioil Life, Mr, Arthur W. 

 Knapp, 1j.Sc , of the firm of Messrs. Cadbury, Ltd., publishes 

 his observations on the practice of cacao fermentation in 

 Trinidad. It is the opinion of the writer that too much 

 attention is given to making the cacao look right; it would be 

 an advantage to manufacturers if they could encourage more 

 attention being given to the real internal quality of the bean. 

 In the article under consideration the importance of fermenta- 

 tion is shown by a table containing the comparative charac- 

 teristics of dried beans and fermented beans. When dried 

 unfermented beans are roasted the product is inferior to the 

 roasted fermented beans in all respects. An experiment was 

 conducted to find out the losses which occurred during fermen- 

 tation, and it was found that whilst the fermented CrioUo 

 beans were 2 per cent, heavier than the dried, the fermented 

 Calabacillo beans were nearly .5 per cent, lighter than the 

 dried; that contrary to expectation, there was on fermentation 

 a loss of butter in the shelled beans. This butter bad not 

 passed intM i lie shell. 



The gpn. I -il conditions for good fermentation arr:(l) the 

 mass of beai s must be kept warm; (2) the mass of beans 

 must be moi.-,L but not wet; (3) in the later stages there 

 must be suffi'-ient air; (4) the boxes must be kept clean. 



The article concludes with an account of sweating boxes, 

 their material, position and construction. An essential 

 feature of the construction is that the air must circulate 

 freely around them. To ensure this condition the boxes 

 should be raised above the ground and a space shonld be left 

 between the vfall of the building and the side of the box 

 thus forming a double wall with an air space. 



THREE NEW NUTS. 



In an article in the Journal of Heredity, the editor calls 

 attention to the popularity in the American markets of three 

 new edible nuts. 



The best known of these is probably the Pili nut of the 

 Philippines, which is now commonly sold throughout the 

 United States at about 2.5c. per lb., although it has been 

 in trade for only a few years. It would seem that the Pili 

 nuts of commerce are the fruit of Canarium ovatum and G. 

 luzonicum, of the Philippines, and to a slight e.xtent of C. 

 commune of the Dutch East Indies, belonging to the natural 

 order Burseiaceae. In addition to the nuts, these trees yield 

 a valuable re.sin, the 'gum elemi' of the Pharmacopeia. 



Somewhat similar to the Pili nut is the second kind, 

 the Paradise nut, a near relative of the more common Brazil 

 nut. It is grown in Brazil, Venezuela and Guiana. Its 

 botanical genus is Lecythis, and it is probable that fruit from 

 several different species of this genus are shipped to America. 

 It is interesting to note that this plant belongs to the same 

 natural order as the Canon Ball tree {Couroiqntaij'danensis), 

 The paradise nut contains generally about 39 per cent, of oil. 



Lastly, the third nut which is referred to in the article 

 under consideration is the tjueensland nut {Maradamia 

 ternifolia) of the order l^roteaceae. Small shipments made 

 from Queensland to London are said to have brought 125, 

 per R. on the Covent Garden Market. 



