Edible Products. 



[Feb. 1908. 



attention is given to careful cultivation 

 by a large number of proprietors. 



It should be mentioned that the figures 

 given above as to the exports of cacao 

 have been reckoned in both cases from 

 Sept3mber of one year to October of the 

 next, for this period covers the whole 

 crop, and does not, as in the case of those 

 obtainable from the Blue-book for the 

 financial years, involve the accumulation 

 of half of the crop of one year and half of 

 the crop of the next.— West Indian 

 Bulletin: The Journal of the Imperial 

 Agricultural Department for the West 

 Indies, Vol. VIII, No. 2. 



CACAO : ITS GENERAL CULTURE. 

 By Mr. O. W. Barrett, delivered 12th 

 November, 1907. 



[Revised from the Report op 

 "The Mirror."] 



Your Excellency and Gentlemen : — Let 

 us do some sifting. The opinions and 

 practices, right and wrong, regarding 

 cacao culture, must be multifarious,— 

 not to say too numerous. 



We may divide the planters here into 

 three classes : those who are satisfied to 

 brush, prune, and reap the current crop ; 

 those (the great middle class) who intend 

 to increase their yields when they get 

 the necessary time and money ; and 

 those who are discontented with the 

 present status and who are actually 

 striving to remedy some of the old 

 mistakes. The percentage of intelligent 

 planters who grow cacao in Trinidad and 

 Tobago is undoubtedly high ; bat nearly 

 every one of the two or three scores of 

 proprietors I have met here are " land 

 poor," so to speak — they instinctively 

 try to get all the neighbouring contracts 

 before their neighbour does, even when 

 they know they cannot properly work 

 those new fields without augmenting 

 their labour and superintendence item. 

 They have no time to study their crop. 

 In fact, it appeares that some (few, I 

 hope) planters shrink from doing any- 

 thing which would increase their crop 

 because then, with the plantation 

 deplorably undermanned, as almost all 

 in Trinidad are, it simply could not be 

 handled. They have no time tor any- 

 thing whatever beyond the regular 

 brushing and picking. They do not 

 believe in the "Little field well tilled" 

 policy. 



The cacao tree has a surprisingly large 

 amount of inherent vitality, but, unfor- 

 tunately, it has a thick bark which fur- 

 nishes an ideal field for the growth of 

 bacteria and fungi. Cut, starved 



covered with hundreds of half-healed 



sores, it struggles through an existence 

 of one or two scores of years ; but break 

 a root, or cut a cushion, or bruise a 

 br anch and the wounded area is at the 

 mercy of the ubiquitous myriads of 

 germs which cau-e in nearly every case 

 more or less loss of tissue. I wish every 

 planter would just sit down and figure 

 out the thousands of dollars he has stolen 

 from himself through the time-honoured 

 methods of killing cushions, of making 

 holes in the trunk, and of the strangula- 

 tion of sap currents by the partial ringing 

 of the stem. The aforementioned first 

 kind of cacao planter will of course never 

 blame himself for losses which he caunot 

 plainly see ; when trees die, pods turn 

 black and brown, and there's nothing to 

 pay for improvements with, he can easily 

 show you that the weabher or wind was 

 un propitious, or fall back proudly upon 

 those dear old moon beliefs. 



However, gentlemen, there is a grow- 

 ing class of cacao producers who have 

 finished with most of the malpractices of 

 culture inherited from — others. With 

 the encouragement and assistance of 

 this Society, and, I hope, also of the Tri- 

 nidad Government, there will soon be 

 but a very small proportion of the 

 planters who remain in ignorance as to 

 right methods. I have discovered a few 

 books on scientific agriculture about the 

 Island. Instead of the present average 

 annual yield of If or 2 pounds per tree 

 no conscientious planter will be satisfied 

 with less than 5 pounds. I have heard 

 of several cases ot single trees producing 

 about 300 pods at one picking : that is, 

 about 20 pounds of dry beans. 100 bags 

 per 1,000 trees per picking is therefore 

 not impossible, yow will please remem- 

 ber. If you will pardon the repetition 

 of a few points, I would like to make the 

 following recommendations concerning 

 general sanitary measures to be adopted 

 on the average cacao estate. 



Direct sanitation embraces the stimu- 

 lation of the plant by the application of 

 plant foods, and the prevention of 

 infection by diseases through spraying 

 and the dressing of wounds. Indirect 

 sanitation includes protection from 

 wind ; forking of the soil ; covering the 

 soil with either a live or a dead mulch ; 

 draining ; removal of weeds, moss, etc. ; 

 and in the present stage of the cultiva- 

 tion here, removal of the overplus of 

 shade. I regret that in touching briefly 

 upon these matters I must openly 

 disavow some of the recommendations of 

 the Botanical Department, especially 

 those made by one of its Agricultural 

 Instructors, some of whose advice, let 

 us hope, is more a freak of professional 

 jealousy than of ignorance. First then, 



