VI 



THE CULTIVATION OF COCOA 107 



other data as to time of bearing, liability to disease, 

 etc. This would enable him to know exactly which 

 trees are the best. 



An Experiment Station, of course, would adopt 

 another method of obtaining a good bearing strain of 

 cocoa. One part of the work of such an institution 

 is to pick out the best trees, and to sow the seeds of 

 each selected tree in a separate plot, thus obtaining 

 plots of, say, a hundred trees each, which represent the 

 offspring of each one of the selected trees. These plots 

 will give a better idea of the qualities of the strain than 

 the mother-tree itself. The best of the plots will be 

 kept for further selection. Details of this method 

 would bring us too far from our subject ; for the 

 practical planter it is too tedious and requires too much 

 study ; he will do enough and more than most planters 

 do if he watches the best of his trees, keeping the 

 figures and other data, and using the seed of the one 

 which after some years shows itself to be the best of 

 all. No conclusion as to the bearing power of a tree 

 should be drawn after only one year, or even a few 

 years, for a study of the trees extending over a series 

 of years will show that the annual yield of individual 

 trees varies a great deal. 



The pods used for planting must be well matured. 

 Unripe seeds give poor seedlings. It is furthermore 

 necessary to use only big, well-formed seeds ; the small 

 ones near both ends of the pod should always be 

 avoided. Before sowing the viscous pulp should 

 be removed from the seeds by rolling them in dry 

 earth or ash ; lime will also answer the purpose. Thus 

 treated, the seeds are less liable to attack by insects. 



Temporary shade. The temporary shade must be 

 planted before the cocoa. Like so many other young 

 trees in the tropics, the young cocoa plant must have 

 shade ; although sometimes, under special conditions, 

 cocoa can afterwards be grown without shade trees, 

 shade is almost always considered to be necessary in 

 the first two to four years. Only here and there in 



