INTRODUCTION 
In this booklet we aim to give the planter such informa- 
tion as may help him to solve the numerous practical prob- 
lems with which he is daily confronted in his plantation. 
While it is published by the department of the potash 
propaganda it was written by a man who is intimately 
familiar with cultural methods in the different islands and 
we beg to call the reader’s attention to the fact that it is not 
merely advertisement but solid knowledge worthy of a place 
in any agricultural library. 
The large number of articles on cacao that have appeared 
in tropical publications during the last few years together 
with the valuable reports of the Agricutlural Departments 
of the British Islands show the great need of improvement 
in field methods and also point the way for such improve- 
ments to be carried into effect. These articles are scattered 
however and many of them contain technical descriptions 
which the average planter has no time to read. The author 
of this work has consulted a great deal of such recent 
literature and has correlated the information so that what 
is here presented is not merely his individual views nor the 
statements of any one writer but a consensus of opinion of 
a number of men who have studied the question for years 
on the plantation or in the laboratory. 
