69 



not wider than can be weeded from the sides without having to step 

 on them. Pineapples must have soft soil, and if the beds are walked 

 on every time they are weeded, they soon get hard and stop the roots 

 growing. 



Cultivation. — Never allow the weeds to grow. Stir the soil often, 

 using a dutch or push hoe, this is much better than the draw hoe 

 which is very liable to bruise and shake the suckers when trying to 

 dig out weeds which grow close to them. 



Distance. — Different varieties can be planted at different distances : 

 ihe Ripley s and Bullheads eighteen inches ; Smooth Cayennes two 

 feet to two feet six inches. 



Replanting. — Replant every year, never trust to ratoons. It is 

 only by replanting every year that the quality of the fruit can be 

 kept up, and the fruit made to come in at the right time. Ratoons 

 will nearly all come in at the time of year when pines are not wanted. 

 Pineapples are worth very little after the May rains begin, and every- 

 body should make experiments in planting so as to find out the right 

 time to plant to make their fruit come in at the right time, that is 

 from Christmas up to May. The time will be different in different 

 places. 



IMPORTATION OF COCOA PLANTS. 



A fungoid disease on the branches of Coco i trees in Surinam has 

 -caused a great loss to planters, as it reduces considerably the bearing 

 powers of the tree. 



The fungus causes ' witch brooms' to be producsd in the branches 

 of the trees attacked. These are composed of a bunch of greatly 

 enlarged gouty twigs which show a tendency to grow in a vertical 

 direction.* 



Dr Morris, Commissioner of the Imperial Agricultural Department 

 for the W. Indies, has called the attention of the various Governors 

 in the W. Indies to this disease, and the following proclamation has 

 been issued in Jamaica. 



A. W. L. Hemming. 



A PROCLAMATION. 



By His Excellency Sir Augustus William Lvwson Hemming, 

 Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of 

 Saint Michael and Saint George, Captain-General and Go- 

 vernor-in-Chief in and over the Island of Jamaica and its 

 Dependencies. 



BY virtue of the power vested in me in that behalf by Law 4 of 

 1884, entitled " The Seeds and Plants Importation Law of 

 1884," I do hereby by this my Proclamation prohibit the importation 

 into this Island of Cacao Plants, seeds, cuttings, buds or other parts 

 of the Cacao plant from a'»y of the countries named below, namely, 



* West Indian Bulletin, Vol. II. No. 5, p. 205. 



