59 



other row, and then let six weeks pass before you ploughed the othtr 

 rows, it would allow the trees to recover from the first shock and to 

 put out the new roots. 



We should meet often, and compare notes ; conferences of this kind 

 are of great value. 



Pruning, — I advocate not allowing any suckers to grow against the 

 mother-plant, before the mother-plant has decided the number of hands 

 it will give to its bunch ; and this is known when the bulb ba§e 

 begins to enlarge, just at the part where the leaves start. The plant 

 is then full grown, and it has been allowed to store all its energy for 

 the making of the bunch, and as soon as it starts the sucker may delay 

 the bearing, but it cannot lessen the number of hands. If you allow 

 the sucker to grow before the bunch is formed, it will starve the bunch, 

 by taking away the nutriment that is to make the bunch and feed 

 itself. Open aspects are best, so as to allow free scope for the wind. 

 Shelter belts do not save bananas. They make the wind whirl, and 

 this gets into the fields, tangles up the broad leaves, and knooks the 

 whole thing down. 



Irrigation. — The taking the water around is the trouble ; unless 

 you have a large flow it will not move quickly enough to cover the 

 land before it sinks, so you have to keep on a much larger quantity 

 than you otherwise would. 



I advocated applying water at the top of the trees by spraying. 

 After the bunch gets to the top of the tree, if the weather is very 

 dry, it will remain for weeks before it comes out, but by applying a 

 little water at the top, it acts like a lubricant, and the bunch is pro- 

 duced very quickly. The rapid expansion of the head of the tree with- 

 in a few days after about two quarts of water have been applied is appar- 

 ent. We should spray the trees with water, which is a simple process. 

 When we do this we will be able to regulate to some extent the pro- 

 duction of fruit in time to meet the good markets. 



Mr. Clodd, spoke on subjects Tillage and Implements ; Economical 

 use of land, (1) best distances, (2) inter cropping; shelter belts. Mr. 

 Clodd after dealing with the implements used, said that to determine 

 the most economical use that can be made of the land an opinion must 

 be arrived at as to what it can do, either from cultivation on land ad- 

 joining or from one's own personal experience on similar soil, or better 

 still, secure an analysis of the soil and compare it, if available, with 

 analysis of soils in the same locality on w 7 hich bananas were thriving 

 and giving a good return. A good deal depended on the market one 

 was working for. A spring crop was the one most profitable ; and it 

 was to this end that most of them were working. The close planting 

 so far as one could judge from the present lands cultivated under that 

 system showed great promise of being able to bring the bulk of the 

 fruit in those months. 



There were three most important ways where economy could be ob- 

 tained in this method of planting. The distances at which bananas 

 were planted and which appeared to be most generally adopted if the 

 acreage planted was any criterion as to the best use of the land, were 

 14 feet and 15 feet square respectively. At either of those distances 

 the results obtained would appear to show that it was the best if a 



