62 PLANTING, CULTIVATING, AND PRUNING 



This generally may be avoided by first making a cut on 

 the underside of the branch and then completing the 

 severance immediately above this cut. 



It is necessary to keep all implements used for pruning 

 operations properly sharpened, and with a view to en- 

 couraging pruners to maintain their instruments in good 

 working order, each should be provided with, and carry 

 with him, the necessary articles for sharpening his tools. 



Cuts should be made in a slanting direction and close 

 to the stems from which the condemned growth issues. 



When this is not practised the short butts often decay 

 and offer a convenient ingress to the trees of parasitic 

 fungi and various insect pests. Wounds made in the 

 removal of young growths with a sharp pruning-knife 

 rapidly form a callus and do not need to be antisepticised 

 as a protection against disease. Those made by the 

 removal of larger branches should be first pruned smooth 

 with a sharp pruning-knife and then painted with an 

 antiseptic. Where branches have been broken off by 

 the wind or other agencies the splintered end should 

 be treated in a similar manner. Four parts of resin oil 

 mixed with one part of tar forms an excellent antiseptic 

 dressing for wounds. The application of undiluted tar 

 to wounds is not recommended, as it is liable to burn the 

 green bark at the edge of the wound. 



One of the strong, gormandising suckers, which fre- 

 quently spring from the base of the trunk of the cocoa 

 tree, may be left growing with advantage on a tree in 

 a poor state of health, with a view to cutting down the 

 old stem to the point where the gormandiser issues and 

 of allowing the latter to take its place. The writer has 

 observed excellent fruiting trees obtained from gorman- 

 disers both in Ceylon, West Africa, and San Thome\ When 

 the canker disease was rampant in Ceylon cocoa plan- 

 tations, numerous affected trees were cut down and 

 gormandisers were encouraged to develop in their stead. 

 The same method is adopted in San Thome with 

 trees which are seriously attacked by termites. 



All young growth pruned off should be buried, to 

 increase the organic matter in the soil, and thick branches 

 should be burned to prevent their affording a medium 

 for the propagation of diseases. 



