PRUNING CACAO 71 



planters, to waste time and money (in his opinion) in waiting 

 for certain phases of the moon before commencing to prune 

 their trees, to gather their crop, or to sow their seed, that 

 is their affair ; but he cannot for a minute sanction or 

 teach such a doctrine, as he believes it to be incapable of 

 proof. The writer knows many planters, for whom he has 

 the greatest respect, who regulate the work of their estates 

 in some part at least, by the phases of the moon ; but he 

 cannot see that it would be right on that account to dispense 

 with the call for scientific proof of the theory they adopt, 

 as without this proof, the theory is to be regarded as one 

 upon which it would not be safe to rely. 



Whether the moon has any influence or not, had better 

 for the present be left an open question, not that the writer 

 has any personal doubt upon the matter, but still the 

 question is one which, take it as one will, has little or no 

 influence upon the progress of cultivation, as each individual 

 may adhere to his own pet theory without being placed 

 at any great disadvantage. In over forty years' practical 

 work in the temperate zone and in the tropics, the writer 

 has carried out hundreds of experiments bearing on the 

 subject of the moon's influence on plant life ; and yet in 

 none of these has he found anything to support the con- 

 clusion that the moon is a controlling power over the 

 operations of the agriculturist. 



It is taken as an accepted rule that in established cacao, 

 pruning or " trimming," as it is called in Trinidad, is best 

 carried on at the close of " crop time," The conclusion 

 is a reasonable one, as the trees are then devoid of both 

 flowers and fruit, and at this period there is less possibility 

 of injury. 



On the first-class estates where cultivation is carried out 

 in the best manner, the tree should annually receive atten- 

 tion in : the matter of pruning, &c. Every tree should be 

 visited and carefully examined. On many estates it is the 

 custom to prune only at intervals of once in three or four 

 years. Such cannot be considered good practice, as the 

 writer has before shown that the less priming done to a tree 



