July 1 , 1897 .] 
Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturists 
67 
and in such a climate too that if the farmer did 
not prune and handle and attend to his trees in 
the way he does, he would probably get no crop at 
all. You have yet to satisfy me that this mode of 
culture is applicable to tropical agriculture ; that 
you should prune or handle, and so admit more 
sunlight and hot air to the trunk and stems of a 
cacao tree than Nature has provided.” 
“ We don’t prune the cacao now” said Fig. 
“ You don’t prune the branches now” retorted 
Potts “ I grant, but do you mean to say you do not 
use the knife at all ?” 
“ Yes, we do” replied Fig, “ but that is only to 
take out the suckers. ’ 
“ And pray what is the sucker” ? queried Potts 
sarcastically. “ It is a superfluous growth, I sup- 
pose, in your estimation, what Nature might well 
have di.spensed with ! So the planter steps in 
with his cultured ideas and the pruning knife to 
correct a freak of Nature. Eh P ” 
Fig appeared somewhat put out by this retort. 
But it was only for a moment. 
“ Why ! we should lose half the crops if we 
allowed the great big gormandizers to sap the 
tree” said he. 
“ Aye the crop again” said Potts. “ Always in 
a hurry to harvest the crop. The main chance 
isn’t it P Why should we cultivate at all but for 
the crops you may say ; well, you are welcome to 
your crops, but have you any right then to com- 
plain if the tree which bore you these heavy crops 
under you stimulating attentions declined prema- 
turely and came to an untimely end.’ 
“ But they are not suffering from decay” said 
Fig, “ it is the beetle Tomicus perforans that is 
doing the mischief.” 
“Then you have not drawn the most obvious 
conclusion from the correspondence before you” 
said the old man. 
“ Take the letter of Mr. Jas. R. Martin dated 
13th June. Read the following paragraph : — 
“ We agree, however, on two points, first, that 
this disea.se is not a root disease; and secondly, that 
it is the work of a Poochie. Your correspondent 
is also certain that if a diseased tree is cut down, 
the sucker ichich grows from the trunk, grows into 
a healthy tree. This is most valuable. So on these 
three points something has been learnt.” 
“ Now I venture to assert that if the beetle was 
indiscriminate in his attack, ‘ the .sucker which 
grows from the trunk’ grows not into a healthy 
tree, but continues to afford food and shelter to 
the beetle just as much as the other parts of the 
tree yielded before, and so the ravages would con- 
tinue till not a vestige of the estate would be 
left. The study of the beetle, therefore, becomes 
a question of secondary importance, and the study 
of the tree the primary issue ; for this one fact 
alone, independently of others, affords incontro- 
vertable proof, coming as it does in the testimony 
borne by the very planters who are charging the 
beetle with grave crimes and misdemeanours, that 
certain altered conditions in the sap, bark or wood 
of the tree have attracted the beetle to attack it.” 
“ There is a good deal in that” said Fig. 
“ Now take the letter from Greenwood estate 
which appeared in the Observer of 7th May last,” 
continued Potts. 
“ The writer would have it that any altered con- 
dition of the tree is not the source of attraction, 
and that the trees attacked are healthy.” 
“ Yes,” said Pig “ the trees on that estate were 
healthy and robust and shewed no signs of decay.” 
“ That’’ replied Potts “ can be asserted only with 
a limitation ns far as the human eye can discern. 
You can no more assert that certain stems and 
branches of the cacao on that estate had altered in 
their healthy condition and undergone chemical 
changes rendering them suitable to the wants of 
the beetle, because you do not see the changes per- 
ceived by the beetle only, any more than you can 
assert that the beetle should not attack Green- 
wood estate, because the proprietor chose to give 
it the name of Greenwood.” 
“ Do you maintain” said Fig “ that Tomicus per~ 
forans confines his attentions to decaying vegeta- 
tion only ?” 
“ The evidence supplied by the correspondence 
certainly goes a long way to support the theory” 
said Potts. “ The writer from Greenwood has 
cited the instance of an attack by Tomicus on 
the beer barrels in the Commissariat Stores of 
Burma and Lower Bengal, which the writer adds 
led to the naming of the insect ‘ Tippling Tommy * 
by the soldiers.” 
“ Well now Tomny Atkins I think was not far 
out in associating Tomicus with fermented 
liquors.” 
“ Take the instance given by the proprietor of 
Greenwood himself. The depraved beetle does not 
appear to have stopped at vulgar beer, for he is said 
to have broached the proprietor’s wine casks in 
1882.” He says : “ After two weeks I found one 
hogshead empty and of the other quarter had oozed 
out through a great many drillings made by 
' Tommy.’ These facts certainly point to a taste 
on the part of the insect for fermented juices and 
snp and vegetable matter undergoing the process 
of decay or fermentation, and it is quite possible 
that estates cultivated more in accordance with 
Nature’s plans than after the methods invented by 
agriculturists for the increase of yield, would 
have less to complain about pests in general.” 
“ Read,” added Pots pioducing a paper from his 
pocket “ the bulletin of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, to which Mr. E. Green drew atten. 
tion, as bearing upon the Cocoa borer which 
belongs to the family Scolytidae about which 
the bulletin treats.” Here is a notable extract from 
this bulletin : “Asa rule, populous colonies of 
these beetles, and galleries so numerous and ex- 
tensive as to be capable of doing serious harm, are 
ioKWA' only in trees which before the attack began 
were sick unto death with maladies for tvhich the 
timber beetles are in no wise responsible.” 
“ What then” said Fig“ would you recommend 
the planter to do with regard to the suckers that 
invariably appear in the first few years of the life 
of a cacao tree ?” 
“ If” said Potts “ Mr. Martin and his friends 
find the suckers such a perfect substitute for the 
trunk after its decay and destruction, it would be 
well to accept with humility the suggestion made 
by the tree to man that it is anticipating the evil 
day by putting out its suckers in time. It is a 
method of rejuvenating itself and guarding 
against dissolution, that the tree has, provided 
for it by the greater designer. 
