Edible Products. 



114 



[August, 1910. 



STOP WASTING MONEY ON CLEAN 

 WEEDING. 



Let your weeds grow, and fork or hoe 

 them in every three months. The cost 

 would be approximately on an estate 

 pruned every 24 months : — 



Pork over the whole estate, three 

 times a year, at R6 per acre ... 



Manure half the estate : Broad- 

 cast the manure and fork it in 

 — R24 per acre 



Bury primings and weeds at 

 the same time § the estate— R4 

 per acre 



This would be equal to digging 

 over the estate a fourth time 



R c. 

 18 00 



24 00 



Against present cost — 

 Weeding Rl per acre per 

 month 



Burying prunings 



Manuring and application 



4 



00 



46 



00 



. 12 



00 



. 4 



00 



. 50 



00 



66 



00 



I only put down three weedings in a 

 year, because, if you prune half the 

 estate every year and bury your prun- 

 ings, that will be equal to digging half 

 your acreage, and you will scrape all 

 your weeds into the hole with the 

 prunings. In forking in manure, say, 

 half the acreage in two years, that will 

 be equal to digging half the estate. I am 

 convinced that half the artificial manure 

 now applied is wasted. The most costly 

 parts of these mixtures are mineral salts 

 containing nitrogen, which so quickly 

 dissolve in our heavy rain-fall that the 

 roots of our tea bushes have not time to 

 assimilate them. Let your artificial 

 manure be composed of castor cake and 

 fish manure. Leave out sulphate of am- 

 monia, which is not only an expensive 

 manure, but so easily soluble in wet 

 weather that the tea bush has no time 

 to absorb it. Basic slag and sulphate of 

 potash is applied with the prunings. 

 — Times of Ceylon, June 11, 1910. 



THE YIELD PROM CACAO TREES. 



From the Agricultural Neivs. Vol. IX., 

 No. 210, May, 1910.) 

 The following information is taken 

 from the articles on cacao by J. H. Hart, 

 P.L.S., that are appearing in the West 

 Indian Comm. Circ. Reference has been 

 made already to these in the Agri- 

 cultural News, Vol. VIII., pp. 260. 292 

 and 340. In the first case, the inform- 

 ation consisted of a summary of a table 

 in which the characteristics of the dif- 

 ferent varieties of Theobroma Cacao and 



T. pentagona were given ; in the second, 

 it related to the soils that are most 

 suitable for the cultivation of cacao ; 

 while in the third, an account of the 

 best methods of manuring, and of the 

 treatment of the soil, was included, 



It should be mentioned that in the 

 table below, as it was originally given, 

 the yields from each of the twelve trees 

 on which observations were made was 

 presented ; this has been omitted here. 



The yields per tree depend, firstly, 

 upon the character of the tree, and 

 secondly, upon the quality of the laud 

 in which it is planted. Some trees natur- 

 ally yield more than others, as may be 

 seen iu fruit orchards in any part of the 

 woi'ld, the aim of the cultivator being 

 to secure a class which yields well. How 

 to secure such trees has already been 

 discussed. That yield can be increased 

 by manuring is certain, where the condi- 

 tion of the soil is such as to allow it ; but 

 to force trees with too mush manuring 

 tends to shorten their period of exist- 

 ence. The use of sufficient manure is 

 good practice ; that of over-abundance is 

 bad. The yields per 1,000 trees is prob- 

 ably the best test of the value of 

 estates, especially if the records have 

 been reliably kept, and the seller is able 

 to give authentic reference to crops har- 

 vested during a period of years. 



Trees of the same size, planted side by 

 side will largely differ in yields when 

 only seedlings are used. The maximum 

 yields of some seedlings will not be more 

 than 1 lb. of dry cacao annually, while 

 others have been known by the writer 

 to yield as much as 15 lb. 3 oz annu- 

 ally, of dry cacao, and others recorded 

 as much as 30 lb. per tree. From this it 

 has been deduced that, given trees of 

 special character, the annual crop might 

 be easily increased. 



In the Bulletin of the Botanical Depart- 

 ment, Trinidad, April, 1907, I asked the 

 question : What is the possible crop of 

 a tree in full bearing ? It was also sug- 

 gested that careful observations should 

 be made by planters, under which the 

 number of pods picked from selected 

 trees should be recorded. This was taken 

 up by a leading Trinidad planter, and 

 the following table gives the results 

 obtained : — 



Yield op Cacao prom Twelve Trees. 



Date Harvested 



1907. 

 January 

 April 



May 

 June 

 July 



Total number of 



pods harvested. 



... 3 ... 176 



... 2 ... 202 

 ... 24 ... 64 



... 23 ... 134 



... 24 ... 321 



... 22 ... 249 



