TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



Continual 

 cropping 

 exhausts 

 the soil. 



the nature of the soil and the yield of the trees. Should 

 crops, which were abundant, be found to be falling off, it is 

 an indication that manure is necessary ; and, in Chapter VII. 

 of the first part of this book, it has been seen that continual 

 cropping must, sooner or later, exhaust the soluble con- 

 stituents of the soil. 



CATCH CROPS. These maybe raised between the cacao 



trees, for the first few years with advantage, for the light 



shade given by them to the young cultivation is beneficial. 



Tanias and Tanias and cassava are especially suitable for this shade, 



lva ' and they will give some return to the planter. When the 



cacao trees are grown, and begin to bear, all temporary shade 



plants must be cleared away. 



The borer. 



Hurricanes 



Blasted 

 treees. 



ENEMIES TO THE CACAO TREE. The principal enemy to 

 the cacao tree is the grub of a beetle, which bores holes into 

 the stem, thereby killing it, but the hole is easily recognisable 

 and the insect may be dug out and some earth or clay or 

 wood ashes rubbed into the place ; or, better still, the wound 

 may be painted with tar. Hurricanes are peculiarly de- 

 structive to the cultivation, and especially to the young trees. 

 The enormously powerful gusts of wind break down the 

 branches in all directions, and if the roots become shaken, 

 as those of nearly all the young plants certainly will be, the 

 trees will dry up and look as though blasted. Much of the 

 young cacao cultivation was killed out in this way in 

 Dominica by the hurricane of 1883, and many persons 

 imagined that the trees had been blasted by lightning. As 

 Epiphytes to ca cao plantations are damp and shady, mosses, ferns and 



be removed. , 



other epiphytes, are very liable to grow on the stems and 

 branches of the trees, but they must be removed at once, as 

 they will otherwise injure the trees and prevent the delicate 

 flowers from coming out properly. 



Crops in five 

 years. 



CROPS. Returns from a cacao plantation cannot be ex- 

 pected until five years after planting, and it will not be in 



