Edible Products. 



[April, 1909. 



At Pieard Estate, Dominica, the pro- 

 perty of Messrs. Rowntree & Company, 

 an experiment plot of grafted Foras- 

 tero cacao has been started. It contains 

 136 plants supplied by the Botanic 

 Station. Other trials on a smaller scale 

 are being made on various cacao estates. 

 At the present time 200 plants have been 

 ordered by planters from the Station 

 for further experiments, and the plants 

 will be delivered in the course of a 

 few weeks. These trials should yield 

 valuable information in the course of 

 several years. 



It will be understood that the ap- 

 pearance of grafted cacao plants in 

 tneir early stages is quite different 

 from the habit of seedling cacao. The 

 seedlings grow with a single stem and 

 do not usually branch in Dominica, 

 until 3 or 4 feet, and sometimes 5 feet, 

 in height, depending on the soil, posi- 

 tion and amount of shade given. Grafted 

 cacao plants branch a few inches 

 above the point of union and form bushy 

 specimens. This early production of 

 several branches with a large leaf sur- 

 face is probably one of the factors in 

 causing rgrafted plants to fruit much 

 earlier than seedling plants.* 



Close on 500 grafted cacao plants have 

 been obtained during eighteen months 

 from an established cacao tree posses- 

 sing desirable qualities. Had it been 

 necessary, double this number could 

 have been obtained from the tree by 

 erecting additional staging on which to 

 stand the bamboo pots containing the 

 stocks. It Avill be noted that planters 

 possessing cacao trees of a fruitful and 

 disease-resisting type could increase 

 them by grafting at a fairly rapid rate. 



Some of the advantages obtainable 

 by adopting the system of grafting cacao 

 and forming future plantations with 

 grafted instead of seedling plants would 

 be as follows :— Obtaining an even 

 quality of produce requiring the same 

 degree of curing ; growing disease-resist- 

 ing varieties ; earlier fruiting ; giving a 

 quicker return on capital invested ; 

 increase of yield per acre by selecting 

 prolific strains ; possibly the dwarfing 

 of the trees owing to grafting. 



Should grafting tend to dwarf cacao 

 trees as it is known to do in the ease of 

 many varieties of mangoes, this should 

 be of advantage in islands like Dominica, 



* A tree planted on September 11, 1905, was 

 photographed on March 25, 1908, and measured 9 

 feet in height and 9 feet through the spread of the 

 branches at 3 feet from the ground. It was carry- 

 ing sixty pods, and other grafted plants growing in 

 the vicinity of the 'same age were carrying from 

 thirty to forty pods each— Ed. W. I. B. 



as low-growing trees could be better 

 protected from the wind. With dwarf 

 trees it might be possible to sever all 

 the pods with a knife held in the hands 

 of the cacao gatherer, thus ensuring the 

 crop being removed without injury to 

 the tree, and doing away with the use 

 of the cacao hook, a necessity for gather- 

 ing the crop of the upper branches of 

 the present tall trees. 



Even in the hand* of a careful man 

 the cacao hook does some harm to the 

 trees, portions of th e bark of the branch 

 being often removed with the pods, 

 either above or below the fruits, leav- 

 ing wounds in which fungus spores may 

 pnter and set up disease conditions. 

 The prevalence of dead upper branches 

 on cacao trees in islands where over- 

 head shade is n ot given is attributed 

 wholly to the e ft' ects of the sun and the 

 wind, but the p art played by the cacao 

 hook in this matter, though it cannot 

 be calculated, is undoubtedly consider- 

 able. 



It will be more expensive to plant a 

 field with grafted cacao than with seed- 

 ling cacao, just as it is more costly to 

 plant a field with budded orange plants 

 than with seedling kinds, but the orange 

 grower knows by experience that he is 

 following right methods, and that he 

 will be repaid for the extra cost of 

 budded plants. In like manner the 

 value of grafted cacao plants may be 

 demonstrated in the course of time, and 

 cacao growers brought to adopt this 

 system in further development of cacao 

 cultivaton. 



EXPERIMENTS AT GRENADA. 



Br R. D. Ans tbad, b.a. (Cantab.), 

 Agricultural Superintendent, Grenada. 



As mentiored in the West Indian 

 Bulletin, Vol. VIII., pp. 130-1, the ex- 

 periment plots of cacao at Grenada are 

 of cwo kinds, distinguished for the sake 

 of reference by the terms, ' experiment 

 plots,' and ' experiment stations.' 



The experiment plots are each about 

 one acre in extent, and are chosen from 

 land near the public roads belonging 

 to peasant proprietors. 



One series of these plots completed 

 its three-year course in 1904, and a fresh 

 series, chosen on the same plan, but in 

 different localities has completed its 

 second year. The results are briefly set 

 forth in the following table :— 



