PLANTING CACAO 87 



The preceding notes on planting will apply to grafted 

 or budded plants as well as to seedlings, but the former 

 will require more care than the latter, and as soon as the 

 planting is finished the young trees should each be sup- 

 ported by a strong, pointed stake, placed firmly into the 

 ground close to the plant and safely tied thereto, in order 

 to protect the point of union between the " scion " * and 

 the " stock." t This is a weak part of the plant for a 

 time, and close attention should be given in order to see 

 that no strain or injury of any kind be brought upon it 

 by wind or other cause. 



Great care should be taken to remove as fast as they 

 appear any shoots (chupons) which start below the union 

 of scion and stock. If they are not removed, the character 

 obtained by grafting is absolutely lost, and the tree will 

 take on the character of the " stock " only. This arises 

 from the fact that in many cases shoots below the graft 

 start and outgrow the budded or grafted head, and take 

 away from it the nourishment it would otherwise receive, 

 causing it to become gradually starved and killed out. 

 If these growths are removed, the sap is directed into the 

 scion, and growth takes place, which will form a tree the 

 exact duplicate of that from which the scion was taken. 



Fig. 16, for which the writer is indebted to Dr. Francis 

 Watts, shows Theobroma pentagona grafted on stocks of 

 Theobroma cacao, grown by Mr. Joseph Jones at the 

 Dominica Botanic Station. A paper read at the West 

 Indian Conference of 1908 in this connection is highly 

 instructive as to the value of grafting cacao.J 



The work of cacao-planting is in many countries carried 

 out under a system of contract, and this method has hitherto 

 been largely followed in the West Indies. It may be 

 described as follows : The peasant enters into a contract 

 to plant the land with cacao-trees, and receives for his 



* The " scion " is the part taken from selected tree which is to form a 

 duplicate of original. 



f The " stock " is the rooted plant, to which the rootless scion is finally 

 united and becomes one tree. 



t Agrieultural Netoa, vol. vii. 1908, p. 85. 



