July 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
39 
Canker having left its card in yellow leaves and im- 
pressed its seal of the tamiliar claret-hue, nature's first 
impulse is of reproduction. This effort may take the 
form of fruit or suckers,'' or both. When the process 
of dying is rapid, the tree has time for no exhibition of 
tbis kind ; but when it is long-drawn-out, fruit or 
suckers, or both, may appear, according to the virility 
and general condition of the tree. In the case of 
suckers, as in tbe case of fruit, they mature according 
to the extent ihey are unalSscted. If affected badiy 
the pods turn blacK, and the tips of the suckers droop 
and follow suit ; but the suckers rarely die back in this 
way unless the process of dying is going on fast. 
The process of dying, however, may be delayed 
and, under certain conditions, arrested by proper 
treatment, when the life of the suckers is saved, and 
we get new wood from the old root. It often happens, 
too, that the old tree recovers and, if not too many 
suckers are allowed from the base, continues to bear 
as formerly. But if the tree is aged, the old wood 
gets weaker and softer, the whole of its strength 
being absorbed by the suckers. When this is the 
case the old tree should be cut out to give the suckers 
every chance, and then? — then we have lost all crop 
from that tree for a year or eighteen months, until the 
suckers have matured. 
This, I think, is a fair statement of facts, and this 
it is which has turned planters' attention to growing 
suckers, not merely on diseased trees, but on healthy 
trees also, in order to be prepared for a possible 
attack of canker. 
Now, what is 
THE EFFECT OF CANKER 
in the old tree upon the suckers ? It is clear 
that, if the suckers are to justify their ex- 
istence, they must be kept from canker. A 
certain sacrifice of crop may have been, and is 
generally is, the immediate result of growing 
these suckers, therefore their well-being is of 
paramount importance ; for should they become 
diseased we shall have lost both crop and suckers, and 
from every point of view this is disastrous. Then 
comes the fatal question, Can we cure the canker in 
the old tree ? If we can, we must do so ; if we can- 
not, the old tree must come away ; for to keep tinkering 
at the tree while the canker is posoibly spreading to 
tbe suckers is not to he recommended. The risk is too 
great, for once the suckers are gone our labour has 
been in vain. As scarcely the boldest, and youngest, 
planter would guarantee, I imagine, to '' cure the 
canker," let us suppose the old tree is cut out. The 
immediate effect is probably diminution of crop, the 
ultimate effect the rotting away of the old stamp. 
If the old stump rots away quickly, the suckers are 
again in jeopardy. Suckers, however, if close to the 
ground, or if the earth be heaped up around them, 
will throw down fresh roots, which very usually are 
not strong enough at first to bear their own weight. 
Sometimes, perhaps, in the majority of cases, nothing 
will induce them, short of props, to retain the perpen- 
dicular, and the weight of any pods they may hear 
generally brings them down in spite of the props 
which are seldom free from white ants. So, what 
are we to do? We cannot honestly trust 75 per cent, 
of these suckers, so that the need uf putting in a 
supply becomes obvious. What is even more obvious is 
that the supply should;have been there six years before. 
The effect of canker on a medium-aged tree is not 
dissimilar but eminently more hopeful. There is 
little doubt that the best •' bush-cocoa," that is to 
Bay, the bush the suckers may be trained into after 
the old tree is cut out, is grown from medium-aged 
trees. Their luxuriance of growth nearly always 
infects the old stump which is not so liable to decay, 
but they are by no means so apt to throw down roots 
of their own. The case appears to be one more of 
adaptation to circumstances than of independent 
action, and it is possible that, on this very account, 
perhaps, they are far more to be relied on than 
suckers from aged trees. A medium-aged tree, the 
provided that the main stem is cut in time, has a 
fair chance against canker, but the suckers rarely 
bear under the year. 
It is a curious thing, and I wonder if others have 
noticed it, that suckers in bearing while the old tree is 
still alive, when it is cut out, do either one of two 
things, but rarely both ; either they continue to bear 
putting on leaf very slowly, or they expend the in- 
creased energy they obtain from the largs root, de- 
prived of its main stem, in gcowing out into a fine 
spreading bush, the branches of which cease bearing 
altogether, save for a pod or two, until they are fully 
matured. This applies to suckers on old aad medium- 
aged cocoa alike, and points to the fact that " bush- 
cocoa " can i^e grown only at a sacrifice of crop, illus- 
trating the old and unexploded dictum that suckers 
on fruit trees are deleterious. 
But a tree in bush form has the advantage, not of 
being any less subject to canker indeed, but of having 
several more stems than nature usually supplies ; so 
that it is often possitlo to cut away half or three- 
quarters of the bush, and still have something to show 
in its place. That such bushes bear as well as the 
original tree may be doubted, but that they do bear 
at least f&irly well is undisputed ; and, possibly, un- 
der a modified system of culture, they may be almost 
as remunerative. At any rate, experiments are en- 
couratiiug. 
So that, as it is obvious that a young plant, in bear- 
ing, if possible, should be ready to taka the place of 
an old cankered tree, it now occurs to me to ask 
whether it would not be desirable to be ready with a 
tree in bush form. 
Now, 
THE GROWING OF BUSH- COCOA 
introduces variations on methods and results, with 
which we are not entirely familiar. 
Anyone who has cocoa at 12 ft. by 12 ft. — and we 
all have — knows that well-grown Caracoas trees in 
teilace at that distance ; therefore, greater spread on 
our old fields we do not want. On the other hand, 
most of us are now replanting with Porastero, of 
altogether larger growth, and I am aware of an 
instance of a proprietor having planted Forastero 
at 18 ft., who complains of being laughed at. 
Some of you, gentlemen, at least will know 
of Forastero at 12 ft. and also that 15-year-old trees 
have an average perimeter of at least 20 feet ; but 
I am not aware, except in one or two instances, of 
any practical conclusions having been drawn from 
that significant fact. On the contrary tlie '• piling of 
Pelion on Ossa " is common, for on a certain such 
field I have in my mind the V. A. ordered suckers 
to be grown. 
If, therefore, it proved advisable to start the cultiva- 
tion of 'bush-cocoa' in good earnest, the usual 
distance of planting is manifestly inadequate for even 
Caraccas ; how much more so, then, for Forastero. 
And now I am going toj be heterodox. Nothing 
is more noticeable in the story of Oeylon cocoa than 
the ' rule of thumb.' Oo:;oa in Ceylon was originally 
planted — 1 speak generally — without shade. Something 
occurred — probably helopeltis — to show that shade was 
beneficial. Everyone planted shade — even planters 
the condition of whose estates left nothing to be 
desired. 1 will not dwell on what distances that shade 
was planted at ; everyone knows that ; it was overdone. 
Then canker came ; light was pronounced inimical 
to canker ; the shade .was out out. Neither will 1 
dwell on how that shade was cut out ; everyone 
knows that that, too, in many cases vi'as overdone. 
But canker has taught us something else : it has 
indicated that Forastero is the hardier (if less valuable) 
variety of tlie two; and, as Caraccas dies out, Forastero 
is now being almost universally substituted. And 
what I want to ask is whether this also does not 
threaten to be overdone. Unless Forasteio is as re- 
munerative as Caraccas, and as at present cultiTate(J 
