66 CACAO 



favourable circumstances is often of a remarkable character, 

 and it appears that they possess the power of working, in 

 the exact direction in which food-suppHes lie with almost 

 unerring certainty, although it may be a situation outside 

 their ordinary or regular circle of growth. In fact, if food- 

 supplies are placed within reasonable bounds, it is seldom 

 the roots of a tree will fail to find them, but it is evidently 

 better for the conservation of the energy of the plant that 

 such supply should be placed as near the absorbent circle 

 as possible. When trees are uncommonly vigorous, owing 

 to an unusually abundant supply of nutriment, it is 

 sometimes necessary to check root growth, or root power, 

 by pruning. A circular trench dug around a tree at 

 suitable distance from the stem, will often throw a pre- 

 viously non-fruiting tree into a regular cropping condition, 

 but this is seldom necessary, except when local conditions 

 and surroundings are the cause of a too vigorous growth 

 of woody material. Such a condition is often incited by 

 the presence of too great a proportion of nitrates in the soil. 



The act of pruning is popularly supposed to cause 

 directly the production of fruit. That it has this effect, 

 when properly carried out, there can be no question ; 

 but the effect is not so direct as is often assumed. The 

 material for the production of fruit is laid up by the leaves, 

 but if the leaves have not done their work properly, or are 

 insufficient in number to accomplish it, all the pruning 

 in the world could not bring such a tree at once into a 

 fruiting stage. In special cases where conditions are 

 favourable, the act of pruning is well known to join in 

 hastening the production of fruit by directing sap into 

 nascent flower buds. 



Given a young tree in good health, and with a single 

 stem, the pruning should be begun by the regulation of the 

 primaries, or first branches made by the tree. That is to 

 say, pruning should in the first instance be directed to 

 securing a proper form and arrangement of the branches. 

 There should, as a general rule, be only three, or at most 

 four, primary branches left on the cacao-tree. These 



