498 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jan< I, 189 S. 
take this opportunity of expressing their satisfaction 
with the work done by the Manager and staff in 
Ceylon. 
CACAO IN CEYLON AND TRINIDAD. 
Tlie following paragraph from the Londo^ 
letter of onr morning contemporary, is of 
so startling a character that we reproduce it 
in full : — ■ 
“ The following extract from a letter penned by a 
writer well versed in cacao planting may be found 
worthy of the consideration of the Cryptogamist who 
is now called on to prescribe a remedy for the disease 
under which the trees are suffering; — ‘What I believe 
to be the matter with cacao is limit of ege, which 
limit is reached at 13 or 14 years. At any rate cacao 
dies out, I may say, universally, when it reaches 
that age. Supplies grow vigorously where the 
original cacao has died out, so it comes to this, that 
on a cacao estate you have a certain proportion of 
acres bearing, a certain proportion dying out, and a 
certain proportion coming on towards bearing, i.t., 
if you re-plant as the trees die out, as you should do. 
When the cacao is sickening before dying it is no 
doubt attacked by various pests which do not attack 
it while it is vigorous and healthy. I do not think 
these pests are the cause of the death of the cacao, 
although they may hasten it.’ If this be a correct view, 
the practical benefit to be anticipated from Mr. 
Carruthers’ visit will be limited to a slight prolong- 
ation of the life of these infirm old patients, though 
from a scientific point of view his researches into 
the life history of the fungus may be full of interest.” 
We say the above is “startling” intelligence, 
because of what is said about the limit of age 
of cacao. All authorities on the plant and its 
culture in South America and the West Indies, 
that w'e have come across, give a widely different 
opinion and generally agree with the Dutch 
writer Berthelink, who, in his monograph on 
tlie Cacao in Dutch Guiana, states that no 
tropical product gives more trouble to the 
planter, or proves less certain success, up 
to its tenth or twelfth year, than Cacao ; but 
after that all should be plain sailing, with little or 
no trouble, and the prospect of steady continuous 
crop.s up to a hundred years. The w’viter further 
quoted instances of “Cacao Walks”— as plant- 
ations are called — in Guiana that had gone 
on bearing for quite a century. Of course 
South America is the natural habitat of 
“Cacao” and the deep rich soil of the Guianas 
and Amazon valley is no doubt specially favour- 
able ; but wherever the plant has been established 
in fairly good soil in valley “pockets” or in 
alluvial e.vpanses in Ceylon, we should be con- 
fident of a far longer term of productive life 
than is given by the pessimist quoted above. 
The risk of disease, such as is now engaging 
tlie attention of the Cryptoganiist, Mr. Carru- 
thers, must of course be taken into account, 
ajiart from soil or situation. 
It wdll be remembered that Mr. li. S. Eraser 
of Kaiidenewara and Warriapolla— like Mr. 
Tytler — before commencing Cacao cultivation in 
Ceylon, visited Trinidad, and we have just 
received from that Colony, Proceedings of “ The 
Agricultural Society,” which include a very full 
and valuable lieiiort, giving elahor.ite analyses 
ot soils and of tiuit in all stages Irom different 
AVest Indian Colonie-s— the two kinds of Cacao 
dealt wiili heii g “ Calabacillo ” (a new’ name) 
and “ Eorastero.” i here are more than a 
dozen pages cf analyses alone. In Ceylon we 
can ha\e no .soils to compete with those here 
detailed. Tyjies of good cacao soils are given 
for IJcmeraia, Guiana, St. Vincent, Trinidad 
and Nicaragua, and we must quote the table 
with the results obtained, into our Tropical Agri- 
culturist. Meantime, it is of interest to learn 
from the Report : — 
From these figures it appears that the cacao tree 
whilst storing up in the plant itself relatively large 
proportions of the important elements of plant food 
present in the soil, requires for the yearly production 
of young shoots, leaves and fruit not less than 138 lb. 
of nitrogen, 64 lb. of phosphoric anhydride, 94 lb. of 
potash, 1041b. of lime and 311b. of magnesia. Under 
careful conditions of agricultural practice, however, of 
this great annual drain upon the soil but 8'7 lb. of 
nitrogen, 4'51b. of phosphoric anhydride, 3'7 lb. of 
potash, l'41b. of lime and lib. of magnesia are neces- 
sarily removed from it, the remainder becoming more 
or less available again for plant food by the decompo- 
sition of the fallen leaver, pruning and husks upon 
the land. Of the, in round numbers, 130lh. of nitrogen 
returned to the soil a considerable proportion, possibly 
20 to 30 per cent, may be lost during the decom- 
position of the vegetable matter, hut where the trees 
are shaded by the nitrogen-collecting Bois Immortel 
or Oronoque tree {Erytltrina vehuina and E. itmhrosa 
which are used on the islands, or E. ylauca which is 
used in Guiana) doubtless much of the amount thus 
lost is recouped to the soil. Hence from these con- 
siderations, we are led to the conclusion that a good 
cacao soil should be one capable of yielding to the tree 
in the course of years a somewhat high proportion of the 
important constituents of plant food without exhaus- 
tion, aud also capable of rapidly rendering again 
available the large quantities of inanurial matter 
returned to it in the forms of pruniiigs, leaves fallen 
and broken pods. It must in addition be one in which 
the course of nitrification readily take place ; in other 
words, a fairly rich friable and well drained soil. 
Again, as to manuring, we are told : — 
In the absence of direct experiments on the 
manuring ot cacao we have formed our opinion that 
where the Erythrinae are used as shade trees, manur- 
ing should be directed largely towards the upkeep 
of the potash and phosphates necessary to enable the 
shade trees to do their part as nitrog-n collectors 
and that where no shade trees are used the mineral 
manuring ought to be more largely supplemented by 
nitrogen. Thus the following mixture or mixtures 
of other materials yielding the same proportions of 
nitrogen, phosphates and potash per acre might be 
advisedly tried on cacao plantations : — 
Ertlirince used Not 
for shade. shaded. 
cwt. cwt. 
Nitrate of soda . . 1 2 
Superphosphate of lime 
36 per cent, soluble .. f 4 
Potash sulphate . . 1 i 
The materials should be rvell mixed and applied iu 
quantity according to the number of treis planted 
per acre around each tree at a distance of about two 
to three feet from the stem. 
But the most interesting portion is the con- 
clusion bearing on “ pests,” only unfortunately 
the tree gets little attention — nothing being 
said of “fungus” or “canker”— as compared 
with the fruit. We quote in full : — 
Pests affecting cacao plantations. — This country being 
particularly suited over vast areas of its extent for 
the cultivation of cacao, we availed ourselves of 
opportunities for investigating some of the ailments 
that affect both trees and fruit. Two or three species 
of borers prey on certain trees, but on healthy 
plantations are not a serious pesc, the trees growing 
under unfavourable conditions of soil, drainage, Sec., 
suffering most from the attacks. Much of the pre- 
valence of these pests is due to the amount of dead 
brushwood lying about on plantations dropped from 
the shade trees or left from pruning of the cacao. 
Plantations kept clear of dead wood would not 
suffer much. A more serious affection is the fungoid 
disease to which the fruit is liable and is often 
attacked with. Fruit so attacked are called by plan 
