60 CACAO 



properly applied it is of the greatest value to the land, 

 not only for its manurial properties, but also for its 

 mechanical action upon the soil, and moreover, it can 

 never be as dangerous to use as chemical manures, which 

 are admitted to be decidedly hazardous when applied by 

 unskilled labour. By unskilled labour the writer does 

 not mean the peasant or farm hand only, but educated 

 people who take up the business of agriculture without 

 due study, acting under the impression that they were 

 " born to till the ground." 



In some cases quicklime becomes a powerful ally to the 

 cultivator, but, on the other hand, its undue application 

 tends to exhaust the soil of valuable constituents by setting 

 them free much more rapidly than is required, and therefore 

 it should always be used with great caution. In nature, 

 manure is given to the roots of trees by the decomposition 

 of vegetable and mineral substances, and is carried down- 

 wards by rain-water, worms, and other agencies. Rain- 

 water itself also provides a certain quantity of plant-food 

 in solution. The plant or tree does not, however, obtain 

 all its food from the soil, as the surrounding air provides 

 it with a large portion, which is taken up in gaseous form 

 by the leaves. It should therefore be the aim of the 

 cultivator to maintain on his trees as large a proportion of 

 healthy leaves as they can carry. Whether the food is 

 taken up by the roots or by the leaves, it is in the latter 

 organs that all the material necessary for the purpose of 

 growth and reproduction is formed and distributed. The 

 leaves are in fact the laboratory of the plant, in which all 

 the most important changes of the vegetable fluids are 

 carried out. 



The importance of maintaining at all times a healthy 

 crop of leaves cannot be over-estimated ; and for this 

 reason a system of pruning should be adopted by which 

 they are made to distribute themselves with great regularity 

 over the branches of the tree, so as to place them in a 

 position to carry out the work they are called upon to 

 perform. 



