n6 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



Ravines do 

 not require 

 shade trees. 



Exposed 

 situations to 

 be avoided. 



place them in the middle of the lines ; for, if they are too, 

 near the young cacao, their roots do harm, and there is 

 danger of the trees being injured when the bananas are cut, 

 Shade trees, or when their stems are thrown down by high winds. For 

 permanent shade, the immortelle tree {Erythrina umbrosd) or 

 the " cacao mother," as it is called, is used in Trinidad ; but 

 bread-fruit, bread-nut, trumpet tree, and guango or saman 

 trees may be planted. They should not, however, be closer 

 to each other than 60 feet, and in narrow mountain ravines, 

 where there is natural shade, they may be dispensed with 

 altogether. In such a ravine, on a cacao plantation in 

 Dominica belonging to the writer of this book, the shade 

 trees had to be cut out, as they kept back the growth of the 

 plants. In exposed places shelter belts are a necessity ; and 

 they should be planted before the cacao. The kind of trees 

 used for these belts may be left to the planter's judgment, 

 care being taken not to select those that impoverish the soil 

 — as hardwood trees do — and to reject all those with branches 

 so brittle that the winds break them easily, and those that 

 spread their roots close to the surface of the ground. Any 

 fast growing tree obtainable in the neighbourhood of the 

 estate may be employed. 



Weeding. — Of course land under cacao cultivation, as 

 under all other cultivations, should be kept clear of weeds ; 

 and proper tillage, by improving the soil, will do good to the 

 trees. On steep hill sides cutlassing will be sufficient, and 

 on level places an occasional hoeing will be required. When 

 the trees are grown so that their branches shade the land, 

 the weeds will not grow very fast, and, as a rule, they are so 

 loosely rooted that they may be easily pulled up. 



Pruning. — The cacao planter will have to give careful 

 attention to the pruning of the trees if he washes to get large 

 crops. As the pods are borne on the larger branches, the 

 principle is to develop such branches by judicious pruning, 

 and to see that they are not covered up by a mass of foliage 



Cutlassing 

 on hill side 



The neces- 

 sity of 

 pruning. 



