The Mulch 325 



thoughts for their comfort as when under the 

 even coolness and moistness of a- mulch where 

 the microbes can multiply and the humus 

 business hum their very existence are prac- 

 tically forgotten. 



Once on a cacao plantation belonging to one 

 of the well-known English firms, the manager 

 ordered a labourer from the dank, unsanitary 

 recesses of the sodden field to demonstrate 

 to me the good old way of " forking" the 

 surface soil. After an embarrassing quart de 

 minute, the perplexed fellow said, '' I can't, 

 boss ; I not got my cutlass'' Such things 

 seem incredible, of course, but one can see, 

 only too commonly, the root-murdering method 

 in actual practice, just as one may see grass 

 knee-high in coco-nut nurseries, or scorching 

 hot white sand between the nearly half exposed 

 seed-nuts. 



To suggest a leguminous live mulch to the 

 more advanced class of agriculturist is to meet 

 with the objection that " there is only enough 

 moisture, to say nothing of food, in the ground 

 for the primary crop, and, besides, the blanket 

 crop would hardly give back its own seed." . 



The vertical forking method, to let in air 

 and food and break the clamminess of clayey 

 or silty "packed" soils, which was first put 

 before the Agricultural Society of Trinidad 

 and Tobago in 1907, was hailed with gladness 

 by perhaps half a dozen cacao planters and 

 put into immediate, if but transitory, practice. 



