WEEDING AND UPKEEP 87 



overcrowding. The young plant should form 

 three primary branches at 2 ft. from the ground. 

 These should each form three secondaries at 4 ft. 

 from the ground. Branching should again take 

 place at 6 ft. from the ground. Where more than 

 the required three branches are produced, the 

 weaker should be removed. Such a tree will have 

 a fine foundation or framework on which to carry 

 a big head of foliage. Most of the plants will be 

 found to break naturally at about the right place, 

 but occasionally one will run up several feet with- 

 out doing so. Thumb-nail pruning can be 

 practised to force branching with success. 



There is a double advantage in keeping the 

 crown of the Cocoa tree low. Firstly, as it is the 

 thick branches of the crown which bear the crop, 

 the cropping area is brought more within reach 

 of the picker, and secondly, such trees withstand 

 winds very much better than those which have a 

 similar crown on a stem several feet high. 



The framework of the tree having been formed, 

 further pruning consists of cutting back strong 

 growths which may spoil the balance of the head, 

 or which are unduly vigorous; the removal of 

 superfluous growths that the head may not become 



