46 PLANTING, CULTIVATING, AND PRUNING 



their new quarters it will be necessary to water them 

 daily until rain falls. 



The mortality amongst newly planted cocoa is often 

 very great, and sometimes as many as 30 per cent, of the 

 plants perish during the first year following the establish- 

 ment of the plantation. To obtain a uniform plantation 

 it is essential to fill up these vacancies as rapidly as 

 possible after they occur. 



Cultivating. — We have already seen that the cocoa 

 tree thrives in a moist soil rich in organic matter and 

 that soils containing an abundance of humus are more 

 retentive of soil-moisture than those in which it is lacking. 

 The greatest percentage of organic matter is almost 

 invariably found in the uppermost layers of a soil. Unless 

 this surface-sou is protected it is liable to be washed 

 away by heavy rains. There is, however, less likelihood of 

 losses of this nature occurring on an estate where the 

 soil is held together by a mass of fibrous roots. This 

 state of affairs obtains in old cocoa plantations, and to 

 a less extent in young cocoa plantations where all the 

 vacant spaces between the trees are occupied by catch 

 crops. 



Some planters aflSrm that the soil is best protected by 

 allowing weeds to grow and by cutting them down at 

 intervals. There is much to be said in favour of this 

 practice, especially on hilly lands, for the surface-soil 

 is prevented from being washed away by the network 

 of fibrous roots formed by grasses and similar weeds. 

 When they are cut down the plant-foods which they have 

 extracted from the soil are in a measure returned as soon 

 as decomposition sets in. The biological condition of the 

 soil is likewise improved by the protection afforded by 

 the weeds, as soU-bacteria, which act upon the nitrogenous 

 compounds of organic matter in the soil and convert 

 them into soluble plant-food, cannot thrive unless 

 protected from strong, direct sunlight. 



Manurial Value of Weeds.— According to the West 

 Indian Bulletin, the weeds normally growing on 225 sq. ft. 

 of land, under a young cocoa plantation, in Dominica, 

 were collected and weighed; then allowed to dry and 

 weighed again, when it was found that they had lost 

 33" 6 per cent, of their original weight. An analysis of 

 the air-dried material gave the following results : 



