SOIL IMPROVED BY GREEN-MANURING 6& 



The natural soil in these gardens is distinctly poor in 

 quality and much inferior to that found in the principal 

 cocoa-growing districts of the Gold Coast. There is very 

 little doubt that the frequent application of vegetable 

 matter has materially ameliorated the soil conditions 

 in the cocoa plantation, owing to the fact that the foliage 

 contains a high percentage of valuable manurial matters, 

 i.e. 0*27 per cent, nitrogen, 0*10 per cent, phosphoric 

 acid, and 0*31 per cent, potassium oxide. In 1904, when 

 the cocoa trees were thirteen years of age, they yielded 

 at the rate of 7 cwt. of cured cocoa per acre. 



In the report of the Gold Coast Agricultural Depart- 

 ment for 1908, it is stated with reference to these trees 

 " from a small area of If acres and from 259 trees planted 

 at 15 x 15 ft., a yield of 18,200 pods, equivalent to 15 cwt. 

 of cured cocoa, was produced between October 23 and 

 December 31 of this year. ... A considerable crop was 

 also taken in the earlier part of this year of which 

 no record was kept ; and the trees are now giving promise 

 of an early crop in 1909." Mr. Evans, the Travelling 

 Instructor, Gold Coast, has recently informed the writer 

 that one block of these trees yielded, in 1909, at the rate 

 of 11 Ib. per tree, and two other blocks yielded at the 

 rate of 6 and 8 Ib. per tree respectively. The weight 

 of organic matter added to the soil by various legu- 

 minous plants is exemplified by the under-mentioned 

 results of green-manuring experiments conducted by the 

 Botanic Department, Antigua : 



Ib. per acre. 



Barbados bean 20,000 



Woolly pyrcl (Phaseolus Mungo) . . 9,440 

 Cow-peas (Vigna catiang) : 



White 10,570 



Black . . . . .9,440 



Clay 8,440 



Red 8,250 



Pigeon pea (Cajanus indicus) . . 4,950 

 Babricon bean (Canavalia sp.) . . 3,520 



Wright, Para Rubber, gives the following particu- 

 lars as to the various leguminous plants grown for green- 

 manurial purposes in Ceylon : 



