308 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. - 



September 30, 1911. 



FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES. 



CACAO-SPRAYING EXPERIMENTS IN 



GRENADA. 



The fdUuwing particulars of the scheme fur cacao- 

 spr.iying ex|jurimeiits in Grenada, which has received 

 the approval of the Imperial Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture and the Agricultural Board, is tiken from 

 a letter adJres.sed to the Grenada Agricultural and 

 Commercial Society by the Superintendent of Agricul- 

 ture, Mr. G. G. Auchinleck, B.Sc; this appears in the 

 Minutes of the Proceedings of that Society, 1911, p. 75. 



These experiments are laid down upon two lines : — 



(1) Spraying with copper .sulphate solution to destroy 

 mosses growing on cacao trees. 



(2) Spraying with Bordeaux mixture as a preventative 

 and cure for pod and stem diseases. 



Both lines of work Lave been tried before, with satisfac- 

 tory results. 



EXTENT or EXPERIMENTS. Six Stations to be chosen in 

 the island, each station to contain OOO trees, to be treated as 

 follows : — ) 



Plot A. .300 trees to be left unsprayed: yield to be 

 weighed for one year, diseased pods being weighed separately. 



Plot B. 300 trees adjacent to Plot A: tilled and manured 

 similarly to Plot A : to be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture or 

 copper sulphate: yield to be weighed for one year, diseased 

 pods being weighed separately. 



oiuECTS OF EXPERIMENTS. (1) To determine whether 

 increase of yield'will justify the expen.se of spraying twice in 

 one year with P.ordeaux mixture. (2) To ascertain whether 

 there is an appreciable lessening of fungoid di.seases on pods 

 and trees following on such spraying. (.'!) To note whether 

 epiphytic growtlis such as mosses and pines are destroyed 

 effectively by Bordeaux mixture. 



ESTIMATED , COST. Total of £1 authorized by Agricul- 

 tural Board, liorer, as a result of bis experiments, finds that 

 ^-gallon i)er tree is effective. This gives the following figures 

 per station: 300 trees need 150 gallons at GOc. per gallon — 

 8s. ; labour, say 4.«. per 300 trees; total per .station — 12.?. 

 Allowing a maximum of ICs. instead of \2s. for one spraying 

 of 300 trees, each station being sprayed twice would cost 

 30«. per annum. 



PKHioi) tiK vKAi! FOR si'KAViNc;. Fifst Spraying, a.s 

 soon as pods are beginning to form. Second spraying, about 

 two month.s after the first spraying. 



SILK COTTON OR KAPOK. 



Information concerning the silk cotton tree, and 

 the fibre and its uses, has been given recently in the 

 Afiricidtural i\eivs, Vols. VIII, pp. 130, 279, o93, and 

 IX, pp. 00, 03, 239. The following further particulars 

 are tiiken fri)m the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, 

 Vol. IX (1911), p. 121. 



Kapok is a fine fibrous material, somewhat resembling 

 cotton, but weaker and more lustrou.^, derived from the tree 

 known as Eriodendron aiifrniiuosn.-.i which occurs in the 

 Dutch East Indies, India, Ceylon, tropical Africa the West 

 Indies, Mexico and Central America. The fibres arise from 

 the inner wall of the capsule and surround the seeds. 



The kapok tree grows at the sea-level and up to an alti- 

 tude of 3,000 or even 4,000 feet, l>ut gives the best yield and 

 quality of fibre when situated at less than 1,000 feet above 

 the sea. It is said to flourish best on a porous, sandy-clay 

 soil, in a climate with a dry east monsoon, and to be capable 

 of withstanding heavy rains and resisting long periods of 

 drought. 



The propagation of the tree can be easily effected by 

 means of either cuttings or seed. In the latter case the seed 

 is sown in nurseries, and is only lightly covered Avitli earth. 

 If the soil is poor, it is recommended that stable manure 

 .should be applied about ten days before sowing. The teed 

 .should be planted in rows at a distance of 10 to 12 inches. 

 When the young plants are about 5 or 6 inches high they 

 should be no longer shaded but exposed to the sun. If the 

 plants do notXobtain plenty of sunshine, they grow thin and 

 lanky. The ^seedlings are planted out when from eight to 

 twelve months old. In Java, kapok trees are commonly 

 planted about 12 to \o feet apart along the roads in the 

 coffee and cacao phmtations. When the trees arc grown in 

 special plantations, they should be placed about 18 feet 

 apart (about 144 trees to the acre), for if planted more closely 

 they soon interfere with one another. The trees commonly 

 attain a height of 30 feet, but sometimes grow to .50 feet or 

 even more. ' 



Ilefore transplanting, it is advisable to strip off all the 

 leaves and to cut the stem down to a height of li to 2 feet, 

 and also to cut the chief roots so as to make stumps of them. 

 If the lop is pot cut it will usually die down to the ground. 

 The trees sul)sequently rec|nire very little attention, but thr» 

 soil nuist be kept free from weeds. 



