THE FUTURE OF CACAO PLANTING. 



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advice, but to-day I am only discussing the establishment of a cacao 

 estate, not for twelve years, but as a permanency, and so I am right in 

 saying that to interplant the two crops means the sacrifice of the cacao 

 in the end. Meanwhile both suffer, otherwise you would not need to 

 destroy one of them. 



In answer to Mr. Chacon, I am certainly in favour of planting 

 bananas between the cacao in those centres where a ready market can be 

 found for the fruit. In Jamaica, and in Costa Rica as well, I feel certain 

 from what Mr. Cradwick has told me from time to time that a careful 

 planter can practically lay down his cacao at little or no call on his 

 capital, owing to the profits accruing from the bananas. Of course, where 

 there is only a local market for bananas, the case may be different, as 

 nearly everyone grows bananas for his own use, but once you have a 

 regular trade, as is the case with Jamaica and Costa Rica, the cacao 

 planter should make as much of the banana, both as a subsidiary 

 crop as well as shade, as possible. (Mr. Cradwick. — Hear, hear.) In such 

 a case the cacao should be planted at least 12 feet apart, and better still 

 12 feet by 15 feet, and the row of bananas down the centre quincuncially. 

 The bananas, or their offsets, could then remain as crop-givers for about 

 five years, and occasionally, if the bananas grow tall and the cacao 

 is kept low, even for six years, but no more. The actual time that they 

 should be kept depends a good deal on local circumstances, and the planter 

 must decide for himself as to whether the time has arrived to cut out 

 the bananas. All this time the bananas should prove sufficient shade ; 

 in places the big leaves may even tend to over-shade the cacao, in which 

 case some of the foliage would have to be removed. In saying this I take 

 it, of course, that the bananas are planted and allowed a start before the 

 cacao is put in. In Trinidad, even when bananas have been used as 

 shade, I have known planters to place also three manioc sticks (Manihot 

 utilissima), just the sticks themselves, in a sloping position towards the 

 centre over the spot where the seeds have been buried. By the time the 

 cotyledons appear these manioc twigs have been able to take root and 

 throw out one or two leaves, which help to increase the shade immediately 

 over the delicate plants. As a wind-break I cannot recommend the banana, 

 as in anything of a gale it is the first thing to fall. At times when 

 you wish to protect cacao from the coolness or coldness of the wind, 

 rather than from its strength (and in Trinidad the wind at times certainly 

 dees seem to catch and nip up the trees), then, of course, bananas 

 might be used ; but if found liable to fall about and damage the cacao, 

 they should either be planted at a distance (in which case their use as 

 a wind-break would cease) or be cut out altogether.* I cannot imagine 

 that the banana can give any nitrogen worth speaking of to the soil ; 

 perhaps Mr. Cradwick can answer that question better. 



Mr. Cradwick : The banana certainly gives no nitrogen to the soil, 

 yet if properly utilized for conserving the soil moisture it is much more 

 beneficial than plants which add a little nitrogen but do not protect the 

 young plants from the effects of droughts. I would add as regarding 

 the use of manihot for shading, that calabash (Crescent ia cujutc) sticks 



* Since writing the above I hear that some 300,000 bananas have been thrown 

 down in Costa Kica during a wind-storm. 



