THE FUTURE OF CACAO PLANTING-. 



201 



in belts minimize the risks of disease by helping to confine an outbreak 

 within a limited area. 



Unfortunately, whilst modern science has taught planters how to 

 establish large areas under one particular product, science has also 

 brought in its train the very serious drawback of the ravages committed by 

 insects and fungoid pests over extensive plantations of the same tree. 

 What I have always urged planters to do is to plant more than one 

 crop, arranging the different plants in belts throughout the estate. In 

 laying out an estate of cacao and rubber, I would suggest that the rubber 

 be planted all round the estate and through the cacao at right angles, 

 the belts of rubber themselves being broken up by coco -nuts (Cocos 

 nucifera), coffee, &c, where the lines cross, so as to restrict the area of 

 disease in the rubber belt, should the trees become attacked. In 

 manurial or other experiments these comparatively small areas would 

 prove very useful. In the plan (fig. 31), coco-nuts are suggested as a break, 

 but possibly coffee might be utilized for local consumption, or another 



B I E 



A C A A C A 



ECCCEEEE EEEECCCE 



A C A A A A A A A A A A C A 



EA AE 

 -p. » All caoao, say , -p 



£ * 120 x 120 trees, f £ 



5 f = 14,400 trees ? £ 



K A to the piece. A R 



-> <- 



E A A E 



E A A E 



E A A E 



E A A E 



A C A A C A 

 ECCCEEEE EEEECCCE 



A C A A C A 



E f E 



Fig. 31. — Plan for Planting. 



A = Cacao ; E = Hevea or Castilloa rubber ; C = Coco-nuts or other trees. 

 Each row A = twelve rows of cacao ; each row E = six rows of rubber. 



kind of rubber, if found to be exempt from the diseases that Castilloa or 

 Hevea, of which the main belts are composed, are heir to. Fruit trees 

 would do admirably if their crop could be sold at a profit. 



The idea of planting rubber between the cacao was for shade. Even 

 if shade is necessary (and many centres claim that it is not, while experts 

 urge that over-shading has aggravated the spread of canker in Trinidad), 

 it is not right to mix rubber and cacao, for, if done, both crops suffer. In 

 the end you are forced to cut out the cacao and leave the rubber, like a 

 young cuckoo, to monopolize the nest, and before that the maturing and full 

 crop-yielding stages of both products are retarded, and the yield reduced. 



The plan, drawn up for friends in Colombia, shows the corners 

 and junctions on a large estate : 14,400 cacao trees go to a piece planted 

 300 to the acre, whilst the rubber is planted only '200 to the acre. 

 Should the quantity of rubber trees, in proportion to those of cacao, 

 be considered too small, the latter could be dissected at right angles 

 at the points indicated by arrows, or if that would give more rubber 



