MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 273 



able lengths in the application of the various formulae. 

 In fact, it has become the fashion to spray, and it 

 would appear that nothing but spraying can satisfy the 

 public. 



Looking at the matter carefully, the planter and culti- 

 vator will find that " all that glitters is not gold," and 

 that spraying is not an unmixed blessing, and is not, as 

 many suppose, the " cure all " and " heal all " for the 

 many afflictions to which plant life is subject. It is not 

 new in practice, or principle, as it has been in use in various 

 forms for the past century, the writer having used it over 

 forty years ago for plants in general, but it has now become 

 largely popular through the advertising by manufacturers 

 of spraying machines ; in fact, it is one of the "patent 

 medici nes " of the plant cultivator ; and like such medicines, 

 while having at times a sound basis, may be much overdone 

 under the influence of fashion of the day. 



There are sprays which will kill the plant as well as 

 the pest, and there are others of a harmless character, 

 and numerous pitfalls await the inexperienced in the art, 

 some of which are referred to in order to inform cacao 

 planters of what they may expect in carrying out the 

 " concise instructions " of the sellers of spraying machinery. 

 " Concise instructions " generally mean a hash of directions, 

 non-committal in their tenor, irresponsible in their eiJect 

 and unsatisfactory in their results, it being impossible for 

 the experienced to inform the ignorant, in a few words, 

 of the necessary procedure acquired by years of practice. 

 An Administrator in one of the West Indian colonies some 

 years ago issued an order to his Botanical Department to 

 produce leaflets giving " concise " instructions for the 

 cultivation of various economic products, and was answered 

 that, when it was possible for a general to give concise 

 instructions for fighting a battle, a doctor for setting a leg, 

 or a chemist for ascertaining the amount of available and 

 assimilable plant food in soil, then, and only then, would 

 it be possible to issue " concise " general instructions for 

 the use of planters in cultivating the various productions 



