CACAO CULTUKE IN THE PHILIPPINES. 13 



CULTIVATION. 



Planters are united in the opinion that pruning, cutting, or in any way 

 lacerating the roots is injurious to the cacao, and in deference to this 

 opinion all cultivation close to the tree should be done with a harrow- 

 tooth cultivator, or shallow scarifier. All intermediate cultivation should 

 be deep and thorough, whenever the mechanical condition of the soil will 

 permit it. A plant stunted in youth will never make a prolific tree ; early 

 and continuous grawth can only be secured by deep and thorough cultiva- 

 tion. 



Of even more consideration than an occasional root cutting is any in- 

 jury, however small, to the tree stem, and on this account every precau- 

 tion should be taken to protect the trees from accidental injury when 

 plowing or cultivating. The whifnetree of the plow or cultivator used 

 should be carefully fendered with rubber or a soft woolen packing that 

 will effectually guard against the carelessness of workmen. Wounds in 

 the bark or stem offer an inviting field for the entry of insects or the 

 spores of fungi, and are, furthermore, apt to be overlooked until the in- 

 jury becomes deep seated and sometimes beyond repair. 



With the gradual extension of root development, cultivation will be re- 

 duced to a narrow strip between the rows once occupied by the plantain 

 or the abaca, but, to the very last, the maintenance of the proper soil con- 

 ditions should be observed by at least one good annual plowing and by as 

 many superficial cultivations as the growth of the trees and the mechan- 

 ical state of the land will admit. 



PRUNING. 



When left to its own resources the cacao will fruit for an almost inde- 

 finite time. When well and strenuously grown it will bear much more 

 abundant fruit from its fifth to its twenty-fifth year, and by a simple 

 process of renewal can be made productive for a much longer time. 



A necessary factor to this result is an annual pruning upon strictly 

 scientific lines. The underlying principle involved is, primarily, the fact 

 that the cacao bears its crop directly upon the main branches and trunk, 

 and not upon spurs or twigs; secondly, that wood under three years is 

 rarely fruitful, and that only upon stems or branches of five years or up- 

 ward does the maximum f ruitfulness occur ; that the seat of inflorescence 

 is directly over the axil of a fallen leaf, from whence the flowers are born 

 at irregular times throughout the year. 



With this necessary, fundamental information as a basis of operations, 

 the rational system of pruning that suggests itself is the maintenance of 

 as large an extension at all times of straight, well-grown mature wood and 

 the perfecting of that by the early and frequent removal of all limbs or 

 branches that the form of the tree does not admit of carrying without 

 overcrowding. 



