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These losses can never be wholly prevented but they can 
be greatly minimized by improved cultural methods. 
With the knowledge that an abundance of plant food is 
present a planter is not willing to supply more and his trees 
are in about the same position as he would be on top of a 
heap of uncooked beans without any fire or pot to cook 
them in. A pot of cooked beans would be real food whereas 
a-ton of raw beans would be next to starvation. The same 
is trite of that locked-up plant food in the soil, the cacao 
trees may be actually starving in the midst of plenty. Hence 
the planter’s problem is how to supply the food. 
The remedies are organic matter, lime and cultivation 
augmented by artificial manure. Organic matter supplies 
nitrogen and also organic acids which liberates the mineral 
salts of potash and phosphorus. Cultivation lets air into 
the soil and this liberates plant foods. Lime is needed as 
a plant food but aside from that it is needed in most cacao 
soils to neutralize acidity. A soil containing free inorganic 
acids does not yield good crops and especially leguminous 
plants do not thrive well. Likewise decay of organic ma- 
terial which ts caused by bacterial action does not take 
place in soils that are perceptibly acid. Lime may be applied 
in the form of marl or chalk or burnt limestone. The 
former can be applied in large quantities, two tons or 
double that amount per acre, but burnt lime or caustic 
lime should be used with caution, not more than 1,000 
pounds per acre shculd be applied or it will “burn-up” 
the organic matter too fast. Rightly used, most cacao soils 
would be benefitted by liming each 5 to 6 years or more 
according to the amount applied. 
Most cacao soils that have been under cultivation for some 
years also need to be manured. This is a fact fairly well 
recognized by all who have studied the subject, but the 
