72 CACAO 



at one operation the better. On young plantations pruning 

 should be regularly attended to at monthly intervals 

 in order to guide the tree into proper shape in its 

 youth. 



It should be remembered that a cut made in pruning a 

 tree is just as much a wound as the cutting of a finger from 

 the human body, and that, although the plant may repair 

 the injury to a certain extent, still the wound remains, 

 and unless it heals, produces a certain disorganisation of 

 tissue, not seldom resulting in decay and death, which 

 will probably occur at the end of a long season of drought, 

 when the vitality of the tree has become exhausted by 

 an unfavourable season. 



The treatment of wounds in cacao was for long years 

 utterly disregarded, until it was shown beyond doubt in 

 the writer's previous contributions, and in various press 

 articles, how largely this neglect affected the interests of 

 cultivators by inducing disease and thus reducing the 

 annual crops. In an article in the Trinidad Bulletin the 

 method of treating wounded surfaces on living trees was 

 fully described. This treated upon the practice of pruning ; 

 how to cut, when to cut, how much to cut, and how to 

 sterilise the wounds after cutting. In it pruners were 

 advised to cut large branches, at distances a foot or more 

 from the place where the final cut is to be made, in order 

 to prevent splitting and tearing away of bark and wood 

 by the weight of the falling branch, and then afterwards 

 to remove the foot-long stump by a clean cut. For 

 dressing, tar and cla,y or other efficient antiseptic is 

 recommended. Coal tar has always served the writer's 

 purpose, his father's, and his grandfather's, as an appli- 

 cation to wounded vegetable surfaces, made when pruning ; 

 and the fact of their ages covering over a hundred and fifty 

 years is surely a recommendation as to its harmlessness 

 and efficiency. Other practitioners prefer other dressings, 

 and such may be tried if desired ; but hitherto nothing so 

 effective has been noted as coal tar applications. 



Fig. 18 shows how a branch should not be removed. 



