Edible Products 



136 



[Feb. 1908. 



convenient ; apply the oil or other liquid 

 dressing to the walls of the cavity and 

 to the surface of the filling (which should 

 also contain a small quantity of the 

 same liquid). Don't cut more healthy 

 wood thau absolutely necessary in treat- 

 ing cavities, canker areas, and scars. 

 On the other hand I believe the shock to 

 the tree from a fresh wound which is 

 immediately dressed is le-s dangerous 

 than the sap-poisoning effect of decay. 

 Remember there is practically no such 

 thing as natural death in any part of 

 the cacao tree excepting the flowers. 

 That is why I think you should remove 

 undesirable suckers rather than allow 

 them to die and perhaps infect the 

 adjacent tissues ; when a dozen suckers 

 start from one small area it follows that 

 some at least must perish and a cut — 

 one that can heal — is far better than rot. 

 But right here let me say that you 

 should not trim or cut at all if you 

 cannot do it well. Viciously, or at least 

 carelessly, made wounds cost the 

 planters here many thousands of dollars 

 annually. Overpruning also causes 

 incalculable losses on many estates 

 through the shock to the tree and the 

 direct loss of wood ; I would like to go 

 into this subject further. 



No estate can afford to be without a 

 sanitary gang composed of the best of 

 the labourers any more than the pro- 

 prietor can afford to have no medical 

 treatment when he is ill. Every pod 

 dead or dying must be removed ; all trees 

 should be visited for this purpose every 

 ten days or oftener if possible. It is not 

 necessary to bury or burn these decayed 

 fruits which are usually covered with 

 various kinds of spores. Of course there 

 is some danger of spores from these 

 black pods left on the ground getting 

 back on to pods or into wounds, but 99 per 

 cent, of the danger is removed by getting 

 the sources of said spores down out of 

 the air-currents on to the soil where the 

 spores themselves even in dry weather 

 are soon killed or greatly weakened. 

 The size of these dead pods is immaterial. 

 The same tools should be used as in the 

 regular picking ; however, a piece of 

 tarred gunny sack on the end of a bam- 

 boo will remove most of the black 

 " chileros " from the upper branches. 

 The principle of dressing the cushion 

 end of the stem of a dead pod is good, 

 but the practice is rather like that of 

 locking the stable after the horse is 

 stolen, for the decay of the stem of a 

 dead pod can kill a cushion just as 

 quickly as a slash from the death-dealing 

 cutlass. There is not much use to spray 

 old trees that are full of disease inside ; 

 Bordeaux mixture cannot penetrate 

 plant tissues,— it is effective only on the 



surface. But if you put a few drops of 

 Bordeaux upon a pod it will be nearly 

 impossible for any spores to even germi- 

 nate thereafter on the surface of that 

 pod. Therefore, spray all pods (after 

 removing the dead ones of course) on a,ll 

 young trees. If you save even one pod 

 to every five trees sprayed you will get 

 your money back and, I hope, acquire 

 the sprayiug habit, 



Indirect sanitation comprises a multi- 

 tude of measures. Only a very few 

 planters appear to realize the enormous 

 importance of wind-belts in and around 

 cacao plantations. I am sorry that 

 extended experiments have not been 

 carried out here to ascertain just which 

 trees and shrubs will give the best 

 results under the several conditions to 

 be met with. There are so many good 

 leguminous trees which should be tried — 

 some for hilltops, others for wet lands ! 

 Why, even among the many varieties of 

 rubber trees you have only four — two 

 good oues ! and it appears but oue of 

 the four or five kinds of Castilloa ! none 

 of the South American Sapiums in sight ! 

 The deplorable delinquency in this 

 direction is nearly as bad as in regard to 

 cover crops. Please remember that a 

 wind belt should be as near air-tight as 

 possible ; don't hesitate to sacrifice two 

 or three rows of cacao, or even more on 

 the brow of a hill, for the sake of a good 

 thick screen whether of rubber, legumes, 

 or, better still, of a mixture of both. 



Many of the more perspicacious 

 planters are beginning to see the ill 

 effects of overshading ; a few don't 

 believe in shade at all. To be sure, the 

 immortelle has a few good points : it is a 

 fair wind-break— provided the winds are 

 not strong ; it keeps down weeds — by 

 keeping out the light and thus causing 

 cacao indigestion in the stomachs, or 

 leaves, which cannot properly manage 

 the raw sap from the roots unless the 

 actinic rays of sunlight can assist the 

 enzymes ; it entertains in its root nodules 

 a good grade of bacteria which condense 

 a good quantity of atmospheric nitro- 

 gen — but being a surface feeder like the 

 cacao (or more so) it robs the cacao roots 

 of a large share of their rightful food. 

 We haven't time to discuss the many 

 bad points of the two immortelles. Some 

 planters believe the cacao enjoys the 

 humid atmosphere under the shade of 

 the " madre (or better, suegra) del cacao "; 

 possibly it does ; anyhow the fungus 

 pests simply revel in it. 



Though I've never caught a labourer 

 in the act of mangling cacao roots with 

 a fork and cutlass, 1 have seen a number 

 of instances where this crime had been 

 perpetrated— and then spoken of as 



