CHAPTER 1\ 7 . 

 Manuring: and Pruning. 



JANUH1NG. 



understand properly when a tree requires 

 manure and when it does not, we require some 

 standard or guide, as to what a Cacao tree in 

 good health and thriving condition really should 

 be like. There should be an ideal or standard 

 of culture and this should be the guide in all 

 important operations. Let us premise therefore, 

 that a tree in good health needs no manure. Such a tree 

 is doing its work well, and to the fullest extent, and 

 therefore to feed it with manure would be like overfeeding a 

 horse, and it would just as quickly get " out of condition." T-> 

 make the point clear, I will describe what my ideal is of a tree 

 in good health. It is a tree which from its seedling stages has 

 annually made good periodic growth, producing leaves and 

 branches strong and without disease or blight, and one which 

 produces an average crop of fruit without dropping it prema- 

 turely, or losing it by attack of parasitic diseases, and a tree 

 which can withstand a maximum of either rainfall or drought, 

 without its general bearing being affected. Such a tree needs 

 no manure, for manure is but food, and so long as it has 

 sufficient natural supply to maintain it in good health, it needs 

 110 artificial substitute and will do its work best without it, and 

 to give such a supply would probably reduce crops instead of 

 increasing them. It must not however be understood that no 

 manure should ever be applied to Cacao, for such would be 

 in direct opposition to the principles and practice of Agricultural 

 Science, and could not be upheld, for when trees show by their 

 state of health that their natural food supply is exhausted, other 

 supplies mu*t assuredly be furnished 



The application of .suitable manure to tree* planted in poor 

 soil, to trees in weak health, and to trees which it is desired 

 should make a more than usual rapid growth to serve some 

 purpose of the cultivator, ha$ the best effect ; but the application 

 of strong manures to trees in good health, and it) average 

 bearing, would tend to eucuiuage rank and sappy growth which 



