218 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
most likely to appear in overcrowded plantations, where 
during the rainy season the air can never get dry, and 
the too dense bushes remain permanently wet. It may 
be taken as a sign that the plants are too close and 
require thinning. 
The fungus is apt to spread through an estate, but 
irregularly, and frequently disappears as soon as the 
weather is dry. All twigs or shoots attacked by it 
should be cut off below the fungus and burnt, and 
should it appear to be abundant, spraying with copper 
sulphate solution, or Bordeaux mixture, will destroy it. 
CUTTING 
The cutting and peeling season is supposed to 
commence in May and November, but often later, 
according to the rains. The flush follows the first rains 
of the season, and continues a longer or shorter time, 
according to the quantity that falls. As the flush or 
young red leaf assumes the normal dark green, the sap 
begins to circulate between the wood and the bark, and 
while this circulation continues the sticks peel freely, 
and these are the periods for cropping. It is best if 
the crop can be got out at one cutting, but this does 
not often happen. If the season is not a good one the 
bushes may have to be cut over two or three times. After 
every cutting one or more young shoots spring from 
every stump, and as there are two cuttings a year there 
is a succession of young wood of difierent ages in the 
stocks. The bulk of the crop is the wood of two years’ 
growth, but if the whole two years’ growth is not cut, 
in consequence of a bad season or insufiicient labour, the 
sticks that promise to peel at next cutting are left, but 
in pruning every stick older than two years is cut out, 
whether it will peel or not. It takes about two hours 
for 150 men to cut over a 10-acre block. 
The shoots selected are usually from 3 to 4 ft. long 
and to f in. thick. To see if they are fit for cutting 
the peeler makes a small cut obliquely into the bark 
