56 CACAO 



The application of manure is a subject upon which 

 chemists and vegetable physiolQgists differ in many respects. 

 The chemist is apt to insist upon the manure being buried 

 beneath the soil, or he says much of its value will be lost 

 owing to the dispersion of its volatile properties by moving 

 air, but the cultivator may easily ascertain the best method 

 of applying manures of all kinds, if he studies the life 

 history and character of the plant and the nature and 

 morphology of its organs of assimilation, and moreover, 

 the frequent showers of the tropics prevent any great waste 

 of the volatile constituents, unless they come so heavy as 

 to wash them away. To dig deeply about the roots of a 

 surface-feeding plant for the purpose of applying manure 

 would be absolutely absurd, as we should thereby destroy 

 the very organs or mouths, which are needed to take up 

 the plant-food presented to them, and are situated in the 

 proper place to carry out the process to the best advantage. 

 Practices of this kind are often recommended by new-comers 

 to the tropics who have only been trained in the agriculture 

 of a temperate climate. The writer has seen the practice 

 carried out with dire effect more than once in Trinidad, 

 and it is quite certain, that although it may be carried out 

 with considerable safety in a temperate climate, when trees 

 are at rest, it is fraught with the greatest danger in the 

 tropics. 



The destruction of roots which the operation of burying 

 manure occasions, would, in most instances, completely 

 nullify the action of the manure applied, as the broken 

 roots would not have the power, or the same amount of 

 surface for absorbing food, as when uninjured ; and the 

 manure applied, through its coming into direct contact 

 with injured tissue, would tend to destroy the roots by 

 its caustic character, rather than be absorbed by them. 

 That beneficial results follow the application of manure 

 when buried beneath the surface, is of course patent to the 

 novice, but in the case of surface-feeding plants, it is only 

 after the roots have recovered from the injuries done by 

 the digging, that they are able to take up any manure 



