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usually depends on the amount of wind protection it has and 
it will be found that the general welfare of the plantation 
also rests upon that point. In a plantation where the soil is 
shaded and where the trees are protected from the wind, 
evaporation and transpiration do not take place as rapidly 
as where the air is constantly in motion, hence the soil 
moisture is not depleted so fast and the trees may continue 
to grow where those not so protected would suffer. Where 
irrigation is available the cacao tree may bear good crops 
even though the air is dry, provided the plantation is ade- 
quately protected from the wind. 
SHADE 
There is great diversity of opinion regarding the neces- 
sity of shade in cacao plantations. Some maintain that 
shade is not necessary except for the first three to four 
years and others say that shade is absolutely necessary in 
their locality, not alone for young but also for old trees. 
As these are opinions of men who have local experiences 
there is of course a foundation for the assertions. Never- 
theless it is not probable that a cacao tree needs a radically 
different treatment in one island from what it does in 
another, which as a mater of fact is the case. In Central 
America, where cacao is at home in the natural forest, it 
does not thrive well in the heaviest shade nor in the open 
where it is not surrounded by anything but grass, which 
shows it to be of a habit similar to coffee and citrus trees. 
This habit was not changed during the many years it has 
been semicultivated in the West Indies. The old plantations 
were established and maintained on nature’s plan, and it was 
soon evident that with no more care than what nature be- 
stows it was not wise to deviate from nature’s ways. 
If a plantation is too heavily shaded the trees naturally 
