MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 271 



of access to the trees, especially on hillside lands. Sprays, 

 in temperate climates, are largely applied for destroying 

 pests when the trees are in a deciduous state, i.e. when 

 bare of leaves ; but the application of sprays to trees, 

 which are practically evergreens, is another and much 

 more difficult matter ; and any method adopted, to be 

 effective, must first be practicable. Many estates in the 

 West Indies exist under conditions which prohibit anything 

 but the knapsack sprayer from being used, and the appli- 

 cation of sprays to an estate of 100,000 trees, situated on 

 a hillside, is a task of no ordinary magnitude. When we 

 read of the application of special sprays to certain pests as 

 having attained a successful issue, it is not always safe to 

 assume that because this is so in the one case, it must be 

 equally possible in another ; for it may have been carried 

 out in the first case under totally different conditions to 

 those existing where it is desired to adopt it in the second. 



There can be no doubt that the application of sprays 

 requires the presence of a high order of intelligence among 

 workmen, in order to carry out a successful campaign ; 

 and while this may be present in a Californian orchard, 

 or a French vineyard, where such work has been carried on 

 for years, yet it can hardly be hoped to have the same 

 results from the class of labour attached to most cacao 

 estates. Still, a beginning must be made, and skilled labour 

 must be trained if such work is to be carried out economic- 

 ally and successfully. Pioneer work of this class is always 

 wearisome and disheartening, but it is to be hoped that 

 conducted under the lead of careful advisers the efforts 

 of to-day will result in substantive improvement in the 

 treatment of the pests of the cacao field. 



We hear of sprays recommended for kilUng off mosses, 

 lichens, &c. Now mosses and lichens are vegetable growths 

 as well as the cacao-tree, and it is not unreasonable to 

 suppose that a poison {Cupric sulphate) that will kill the 

 one must inevitably injure the other in some measure. 

 In fact it has been discussed as working serious injury and 

 permanent damage to the plant itself. The Journal of 



