210 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



self-fertilized beans are equivalent to Criollo in quality, and the pod 

 capacity of the trees is equivalent to that of the most productive varieties. 

 These twenty-five trees are situated in St. Lucia, and, exposed as they are 

 to the influence of cross-fertilization from inferior varieties, seedlings from 

 them would soon degenerate to a Forastero type ; they can, therefore, only 

 be safely propagated by grafting, which work I hope to start on my return 

 to St. Lucia in the autumn. 



Another point about grafting I should like to call your attention to is 

 the difference in early bearing of grafted trees as compared with seedlings. 

 At the Botanic Station, Dominica, there is now a specimen of a grafted 

 cacao tree, eighteen months old, bearing sixty large pods. This trait of 

 early bearing in grafts is in itself calculated to revolutionize cacao planting 

 in favour of grafting. 



Mr. J. Peters, in speaking on the manuring of the cacao, said : In his 

 interesting lecture Mr. Hamel Smith referred to manuring as one of the 

 most important means of making the cultivation of cacao pay better, 

 a view which all experts will endorse without hesitation. Soils in which 

 the fertilizing ingredients in an available form are present in such pro- 

 portions as to suffice for any length of time for the normal development 

 of the cacao tree are, indeed, very rare, and the majority of cacao estates 

 are badly in need of manuring. It must always be borne in mind that, 

 however fertile the soil may be originally, continuous cropping is bound 

 to exhaust it, unless measures are taken to restore the fertility. 



The methods of supplying the cacao tree with the necessary plant- 

 food vary considerably. On many estates the leaves, which are shed from 

 the cacao trees, together with those from the shade and wind-belt trees, 

 form the only manure for the cacao tree, and many planters imagine that 

 by forking in these leaves they are fully satisfying their debt of obligation 

 to the soil for the substance which the soil has yielded up to the crops 

 grown thereon, whereas a simple calculation would show them that this 

 method of manuring does not restore those quantities of plant-food which 

 are removed from the soil by the cacao. Other planters maintain that 

 the growth of leguminous crops adds fertility to the soil. While this is 

 true with respect to nitrogen, the leguminous plants add nothing to the 

 soil's supply of phosphoric acid and potash. The planter should also 

 recognize that as farmyard manure, compost, and other kinds of home- 

 made manure, which form an excellent basis of manuring for the cacao 

 tree, are only at the disposal of the planter in limited quantities, recourse 

 must be had to artificial fertilizers, if the fertility of the soil is to be 

 maintained, and the sooner the planter becomes cognisant of this fact the 

 less trouble will he have in restoring a run-out soil. 



Artificial manures, unless specially compounded, are not complete 

 iiiunun , bul contain 011I3 one or two fertilizing ingredients. Thus, by 

 the rational use of same, the planter has the advantage of supplying just 

 those fertilizing ingredients that are wanting, and which cannot be 

 applied by natural manures in the right proportions. On the other hand, 

 artificial manures, unlike natural manures, do not enrich the soil in 

 humus, which is so often deficient in cacao soils. This seems to indicate 

 that the combined use of natural and artificial manures would be the 

 most advisable method of supplying the cacao tree with the necessary 



