76 



it is well to leave 4 or 5 branches for if only 3 are left, the weight of 

 each branch becomes too great, and the trunk is liable, during heavy 

 winds to divide into 3 parts from above downwards. In varieties with 

 feeble growth, only 3 branches are left in order to favour the develop- 

 ment of solid branches. The priming of trees takes places oftenest a 

 little after the crop in June or in January. Dr. Preuss does not like 

 the very heavy pruning practised in Trinidad. The ground is covered, 

 after the pruning, with a thick layer of branches and leaves. Such 

 treatment cannot be good for the trees. It results not in an increase, 

 but in a diminution of the yield, for the trees have to devote a great 

 part of their sap to form leaves again which are indispensable to them 

 to nourish them properly. The planters say that the cutting off of a 

 large number of leaves is of no importance since the trees re-cover 

 themselves very quickly with new leaves, but this fact shows the evils 

 of an exaggerated lopping since it has very little effect and the 

 force and energy which the tree employs to cover itself again with 

 leaves are lost to it, and the production of fruit is by so much lessened 



It cannot be overlooked that the leaves have the same claim as the 

 roots to be considered organs of nutrition. The workpeople use a knife 

 to prune the trees, and when they cannot reach high enough, they 

 climb on the branches. They very rarely use a knife at the end of a 

 pole. Cutting branches an inch thick, a constant practice in Trinidad, 

 should be absolutely forbidden. Pruning should commence as soon as the 

 tree forks, and should be continued as often as possible, but always to a 

 slight extent only. The shoots ought naturally to be always cut off. In 

 large plantations it is difficult to spare a man to prune regularly and 

 frequently. Pruning is therefore only done once every 2 or 4 years, or 

 at the very outside once a year, and then heavily. Whilst a reasonable 

 pruning favours fruit bearing, it is nevertheless a question whether, 

 in place of pruning too severely it would not be preferable not to 

 prune at all, and be content with takmg away the dead wood. One 

 of the two planters in Grenada who obtain the largest crops, prunes 

 his trees very well, the other does not prune at all. 



The trees attain sometimes, in Trinidad, considerable dimensions. 

 In the plantation " La Vega," Dr. Preuss states that he saw a tree 

 which had, at 6 inches from the ground, a circumference of 59 inches ; 

 and at a height of 40 inches a circumference of 45 inches; it was 

 25 years of age. Very old trees which no longer bear fruit, and 

 those which have been blown over, are renewed by allowing one of 

 the shoots which arise near the ground to develop and become a trunk, 

 while the old trunk is finally removed. 



THE SUGAR-CANE SOILS OF JAMAICA. 



By H. H. Cousins, M.A., (Oxon.) F.C.S., Government Analytical and 



Agricultural Chemist. 



PART I. E and S-CENTRAL. ^i ' 

 At tlie present time there are some 200,000 acres of land in Jamaica 

 representing the areas of sugar estates still in operation. Out of the 

 large number of estates that formerly girdled the sea-board almost con- 

 tinuously and even flourished in the most inland districts, some 120 

 only, representing about 22,000 acres of effective cane-cultivation, now 



