THE FUTURE OF CACAO PLANTING. 



199 



Mr. Hart recommends the Nicaraguan kind (pentagona or largarto— 

 after all only Theobroma Cacao), as the scion, grafted on to the Calaha- 

 cillo. The Nicaraguan cacao, very large and light both in weight and 

 colour, sold at 110s. to 120s. when Trinidad Forastero was worth only 

 about 55s. to 60s. Last autumn, when the common cacaos were fetching 

 110s. to 120s., the difference between the two was not so marked. I have 

 always had a hankering after T. bicolor, which also is found in the 

 Cauca Valley, as the stock. Being short, it would reduce the height of 

 the tree, it is very hardy, it will improve with cultivation, and with its 

 cousin (according to Bernoulli) T. ovatifolium — a cacao much thought 

 of in Soconusco — or T. angustifolium, T. bicolor in some districts might 

 be found to do good work, especially if strength and vigour were the main 

 objects to be sought for in the stock. 



A word on pruning en passant. Although some districts have not 

 paid proper attention to this important item, I think that we shall all 

 agree it is a process the value of which cannot be denied if you want 

 to obtain the best results from your estate. First, I should like to 

 know what is considered to be the ideal pruning set ? Is my namesake, 

 Mr. Malins Smith, of Diamond Estate, Grenada, right when he urges : 



A large pruning saw, a recognised tool in the saw-making world, but 

 shall it have two edges with different-sized teeth ? 



A smaller saw, perhaps a bow saw for preference. 



A pair of spring pruning scissors. 



A hand pruner of the coffee pruner type, with a wide, heavy blade and 

 a nice parrot-beak tip. A great deal depends on that beak — it licks round 

 and snips off the little branches so easily. 



The knife or the scissors ought to be far the most in use. On a 

 properly managed estate, except for a diseased or broken branch, the saw 

 should hardly ever be needed, a half-inch branch being about as thick 

 as anything that should require cutting. The instrument that wants 

 to be very carefully handled when pruning is the cutlass, for there is 

 no doubt that, even with the sharpest cutlass, there is a decided tendency 

 to injure the trees and cause the sap to flow unnecessarily. This is a 

 source of danger, for the sap either spreads disease or gathers it from 

 the spores from affected parts. 



From pruning we soon come to reaping, and here again the matter 

 of bruising the trees or the stalks unnecessarily comes in. There is 

 no doubt that for speed the goulet or pruner, either of the Trinidad or 

 Guayaquil shape, is the quickest, but surely a tree pruner, worked with 

 a wire or string, can, with practice, be used almost if not quite as quickly. 

 At the same time it will do much less damage to the trees. I am glad 

 to say there is a tendency for this sort of pruning to come much more 

 into use. The other day I was asked whether I knew of a picker or pruner 

 that automatically painted the trees with an antiseptic after cutting off 

 the branch or pod. I had to own that I did not, though I had read 

 of one in print ; perhaps someone present may know of one and be 

 good enough to tell us about it. 



Coming to shading, I believe that the old implicit belief in it has had 

 a rude shock of late. In the hot dry districts shading to a considerable 

 degree is certainly an advantage, if not an absolute necessity, but in 



