164 COCOA 



CHAP. 



many countries and considered as being of no import- 

 ance. In others, however e.g. Surinam it is regarded 

 as advantageous, but as labour is scarce it is rarely 

 carried out. In other countries, again, it has become 

 a part of the regular plantation work. This is, for 

 instance, the case in St. Lucia ; in the Annual Keport 

 for 1904-1905 the Agricultural Superintendent states : 

 " Many planters seemed to fear that forking the ground 

 injured the trees, but I have never seen any bad result 

 from careful forking. Owing to the results obtained 

 on the experiment plots, planters in St. Lucia are now 

 importing basic slag and sulphate of ammonia ; pruning 

 and forking have now become a recognised part of 

 cacao cultivation." In Surinam, also, no bad effect 

 of forking has ever been experienced. 



Some agriculturists, however, dislike the ordinary 

 way of forking, and consider the destruction of and 

 damage to the roots which always accompanies forking 

 in the established cocoa field as objectionable. Mr. 

 Barrett, who was for some time in Trinidad to advise the 

 cocoa planters, was of this opinion, and he recommended 

 another way of tillage, which he calls " vertical fork- 

 ing." This consists in thrusting the fork vertically 

 into the soil, then moving it gently to and fro, and 

 withdrawing it again without lifting up the forkful of 

 earth. In this way the roots are certainly left almost 

 undisturbed, but it must not be forgotten that the 

 aeration of the soil is much less thorough than when 

 forking is done in the ordinary way ; and, in the present 

 writer's opinion, the noxious effects of the root- 

 pruning with the ordinary forking are apt to be over- 

 estimated. However this may be, the method of 

 vertical forking is certainly worth trying. 



These different ways of forking all result in a more 

 or less deep tillage of the soil, and they are desirable 

 wherever the soil is compact and not very porous, 



1 See Barrett, " Cacao Cultivation. Special Report on Priming and Soil 

 Management" (Paper No. 257 of the Agricultural Society of Trinidad and 

 Tobago] 



