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THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



October 1, 1910. 



FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES. 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF CACAO BY 



SELECTION. 



The Proceedings of the Agricultural Society of Trinidad 

 and Tobago for August 1910, contains an interesting paper 

 by Dr. A. Fredholm, entitled Selection and the Cacao Indus- 

 try. The purpose of the paper is to point out the necessity 

 for the adoption of the principle of selection in regard to 

 planting cacao, if the older centres of production are to regain 

 and maintain their place in the cacao output of the world. 



Dr. Fredholm commences by pointing out the advantages 

 of seed selection in planting crops, especially the possess- 

 ion of the certainty as to the kind of plant that will be 

 obtained from the seed that is put in the ground, and of the 

 means which is given for obtaining improved strains of plants. 

 Figures are then brought forward to show that several of the 

 old areas of cacao production, including those in the West 

 Indies, are obtaining a decreased share in the amount that is 

 grown year by year. These are followed by a consideration 

 of the position of Trinidad. This colony, thirteen years ago, 

 furnished 22,400,00011). of cacao, which was equal to 12-9 

 per cent, of the whole production; in 1909 its share was 11-3 

 percent,, with 51,100,000 1b. It is pointed out that this 

 demonstrates that, although the cacao crop of Trinidad has 

 more than doubled, yet it has diminished 1'6 per cent., as 

 regards the world's output. This means that, if the old per- 

 centage had been maintained, the cacao industry of Trinidad 

 would have been worth $79.5,520 more than it is at present, 

 reckoning the price of cacao at lie, per lb. 



This diminished percentage of production has been shared 

 by nearly all the old cacao-growing countries. Their share in 

 the market is being encroached upon by younger and more 

 vigorous competitors, such as Brazil, Portuguese Africa, Vene- 

 zuela, San Domingo, British Africa, Cuba and the German 

 Colonies. Of these, British Africa has made the greatest pro- 

 gress; its export of cacao has risen from 1 23,200 lb., or 01 per 

 cent, in 1897, to 52,900,000 lb., or 11-8 per cent, in 1909, 

 which is an increase of 1 1 '7 per cent, on the world's production. 

 This increase on the part of the newer cacao-growing regions 

 is likely to be maintained, because new plantations are being 

 made year by year. In connexion with the decreased pro- 

 duction in older countries, mention is made of the case of 

 Surinam, where this has been caused by the outbreak of an 

 epidemic — the witch broom di.sease; this is chiefly responsible 

 for a loss of 4 8 per cent, on the world's production, owing to 

 a^fall from 10,080,000 R). to 4,100,000 lb. 



The prediction is made that the first result of the greatly 

 increasing production in newer cacao-growing countries 

 will be to change the manner in which cacao is graded. The 

 use of place names in this connexion will be superseded by that 

 of the names of the estates which shipped the cacao, as their 

 produce will be exported under their own marks. It is there- 

 fore of importance to the West Indian cacao planter to know 

 the way in which he can improve his cacao in order that he 

 may be able to compete successfully with the products that 

 will be .shipped from other parts of the world, under the new 

 system of grading. 



The final conclusion reached in the paper is that selec- 

 tion will have to be adopted for the purpose of improving 

 West Indian cacao, both in quality and yield. At the present 

 time, the existence of different strains of trees on the estates 

 is detracting from the uniformity of the product, and 

 future labours will be to study these strains in such a way as 

 to enable the [ilanter to take advantage of the best among 

 them, so as to obtain stocks and scions of the finest kinds, 

 with the resulting superiority and uniformity of the product. 



THE CULTIVATION OF RICE. 



Instructions in regard to suitable methods of cul- 

 tivating rice in British (Juiana have been drawn up and 

 approved by a Special Committee on Rice Growing, 

 appointed by the Governor as President of the Board 

 of Agriouhure. These have been issued recently in the 

 Official Gazette, and those among them of more general 

 interest, and relating particularly to the growing of 

 rice, are reproduced here: — 



PREPARATION OF BEDS. Land to be put into rice should 

 be laid out in beds, with dams 2 to 3 feet wide, and 2 feet 

 high between. The beds should be carefully levelled, and 

 arrangements made for drainage, and, if possible, for irriga- 

 tion. The most satisfactory arrangement is to have the 

 irrigation trench at the ' tops' of the beds, and so tapped that 

 water can be admitted into any bed independently of the 

 others by means of small boxed-in ' kokers', and a shallow 

 drain running down the centre of the beds to drain all water 

 to the ' bottoms' of the beds when necessary. In throwing 

 up the dams between the beds, care must be taken to remove 

 as little as possible of the surface soil, for the subsoil will 

 only give small yields, and will rapidly become unproductive. 



