202 
rPlE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
duct of the grafted tree would any way be superior 
to the pure Bed Caraccas with which Ceylon always 
topped the market. Anyone examining the contents 
of aForesteropodwill perceive that the beans are much 
flatter than those of the red pod. The latter is the 
variety that produce.s the nice and plump bean, and 
it is this I lumpness that gives tone to our produce. 
Scientific ireatment nia.y overcome diseases and pests, 
but never improve the quality of the product. Our 
endeavour should therefore, be entirely directed to 
preserve the purity of our red cacao. This could 
easily be obtained by allowing the plant to grow in its 
natural v. ild state with, of course, the usual help 
given to nature by the agriculturist. iUr. Green is 
careful to caution us with regard to the number of 
suckers allowed to grow ; but in my opinion the 
placing of a limit to the number of suckers grown 
13 likely to do more harm than good. For the 
fact is that when a superabundance of suckers springs 
from the tree, only a few takes the lead — following, 
I suppose, Spencer's theory of the “ survival of the 
fittest ’’—and the rest linger lor awhile and die off. 
.\nd if it is desired to leave only a few suckers to 
urnw and remove the superfluous ones, who is to 
distinguish the fittest from those wliich are an tit to 
survive 'f 'i'iiere is no room here to even err on the 
liuht side: so we better leave it to nature.— 1 am 
A. VAN STARREX, 
RE!) (CARACCAS) CACAO RECOVERING 
ON SUCKERS RKING ALLOWED 
TO GROW. 
Crystal Hill, duly '24th 1S9S. 
Dkap. Sir,— 111 reply to your query whether 
“diseased C«cao trees, after allowing suckers 
to grow, liilly recovered?” — I assure you that 
.such has actually been the case in iny e.xiieiience 
wliei'P the so-called disease had been only an 
insect attack. 1 am unable to .=ay wheiher the 
tree h.ad any other disease. Neither could I 
detect any disease in tlie Red Cacao tiees that 
are dying on some estates in iny neighbourhood 
other ilian insect attacks. '1 hese insects are in 
V a-ious tornisas weevils, caterpillars, wire woiins, 
g libs cL-cetera which infest the old wood. The 
rafecled wood decays gradually when white ants 
or termites begin to invade it, and liiiish the 
work of destruction uhich the weevils and coui- 
pany hatl begun. It is rcniarkahle that the in- 
sects do not attack new wood. To my iniml 
it seems the attack begins just as t-he hark 
attains a certain degree of maturity ; bvit its 
baneful intinence does not manifest itself 
until it is too late for curative remedies to 
he of any good. Hence it should he understood 
that a tree incurably attacked, the suckers — if 
any could be got to grow on such a tree — w onhl 
be' of no aVail. lint if that tree had had 
its sucker growing from an earlier stage of the 
attack, it is the infesLeil wood that would have 
gone oil' and left the sucker to take its place, 
wdiich again as time rolls on wil.l be attacked 
by the insects and die oil, leaving its place for 
another successor. It should also be noted that 
a, sucker growing from the stem neaiesl the ground 
strikes loot and becomes a new tree. Ajiart from 
this suckcr.s growing higher ufi or over the branches 
which in the planting parlance are known as 
u'ormand ixers — are also not ti he de-pised, for 
they create new arteries in the .stem and roots 
of the old tree and transform it lo a new mu'. 
Also observe the attacks of heloimltis, the hrancii 
dies backward till a joint is leached, whence a 
new shoot springs out and nils the place of the de- 
cayed portion. The same law of nature obtains in 
every other case. — T am, &c. 
A. VAN STARREX. 
[Sept, i, 1S97. 
“ CACAO SPEAKS.” 
, Sill, — I have uo disease — canker, etc. I have 
enemies: — The Ilelopeltis and the Paddy Fly ifap- 
suckeis trom small branches); the Red Borer ipiih- 
eater=bad piuiiiiig, over- bearing) : since the K- d 
Cotton Ueetle which perforates the leaves and uiuipe 
seed; the Planters’ luditference (bad plants and b.idly 
planted in diffeient soil.) 
The Helopeltis and Paddy F'ly come iiv swarms at 
times and suck ray sap from the tender I ranches at 
edge of leavc.s. 
.'v mixtnreof sulphur j-, fresh dolomitelinip 1. powdered 
wood ash ?, — well ini'.ced and thrown ovei and ihinneh- 
out the tree either after .a .showei or e;i!iy in the 
morning when leaves liave dew on them, will keep 
the Heiopelcis, Paddy P’ly and Cotton ] lectio away 
and this application will strengthen leaf and small 
branches. 
The Red Rorer — you should catch the moths in M.ay 
and .Tune before they lay their eggs; later on you 
have to watch the trees and as soon as you hud 
the borer at woiF supply some coolie.s with a piece 
of wire -and then push in the hole and kill ;he borers — 
let him dip it in margosa oil, stop up the hole if 
you cannot even reach the insect, tlie smell and uo 
ventilation or egress to carry out its own excrement 
will soon kill it. 
A^ou make such a cry out against poor Tomicus ; 
he would never come near me if not for your planters ; 
and why:— 
1 . You get and p'aut unripe as well as over-ripe 
seed, sometimes in soil without lime and potash. 
You should lem ember I require both lime and potash 
especially in my infancy, same as a child requires milk. 
•2. Coolies are not always careful wdien taking me 
up with transplanter or 'with baskets aud put me 
in the hole anyhow to get their day’s task com- 
pleted. In this injured or crippled state, I cannot 
dravr up suflicicni nourishment to form a healthy 
tree witliout some help from you which, however, 
you decline to give — though in your walks round, by 
I he colour of my leaves and their blotchy seedy 
b.irk stems, you ought to see that I am suffering from 
cci iaiu wants, not diseasse, 
ii. Y^ou are so anxious to secure crops that often 
when I am s' ill young and afterwards when older 
you allow me to bear more fruit than I can carry 
and cannot shake off (spirit willing but flesh weak), 
when you should relieve me of some of the fruit 
or give me stimulating food to enable me to ripen 
that crop without suffering in body, not being able 
to supply the wbolc tree and fruit with sap, especi- 
ally when hlelopeltis has injured the leaf and twigs 
and thus stops their help in taking nourishiueut 
from the atmosphere and return same with sap, part of 
the fruit P.nd branches will die and even stem gets 
bark-bound. 
You at times plant me in a soil tot.ally uiisuited 
for me to live and thrive in, soil too poor, a subsoil 
of clay or rock exposed to much hot wind at one 
season tlien to much cold with gales at another 
season; while so placed I cannot supply sufficient 
sap for fruit and body, aud stem gets also bark-bound. 
When bark-bound the juice with fibre betw’een 
outer bark and stem turns sour, then decays. 
Tomicus is a great drunkp.rd aud soon smells the 
decay in the sap and then bores holes in the bark 
to get to the sour sap ; when no more between outer 
bark aud stem, then bores into the wood which by 
this time aho gives out sour sap. 
Yuu also allow me to be handled rather roughly. 
Y'ou know I am a delicate plant, yet you allow the 
coc 4 .es to pull off suckers and hack off branches, 
leav.i.g the rough cut to decay and the insects to 
follow up the decay, where -as you ought to have 
made a clean cut and covered my wound with a mix- 
ture of oil and tar. It is not necessary to stump me 
lo start seveial stems fr©m the has-.; it is oue of 
my failings lo throw out youug shoo s continually 
if all these were allowed to remain, I should very 
soon be choked wanting more sap, than the roots 
and leaf and twigs can supply aud then decay will 
also set in ; but when one or two suckers only are al- 
