Pruning, in the West Indies, is attended with the greatest amount of care, and is performed for the purpose of producing a vigorous tree by the removal of all useless wood, and of encouraging fruiting branches to increase their production. In order to do the latter it is essential to remove any superfluous number of primary branches, three or four being considered sufficient for one tree. A similar regulation of growth is required with regard to the secondary and tertiary branches. In addition to this, care is given to retain the correct balance for the tree, and, when cutting out branches, to avoid making jagged cuts or slashes. The West African native does not prune with these objects in view, but employs a “cutlass” or “machete” to cut out those branches which seem to be giving too much shade or which have become interlaced, regardless of their value to the tree or of the wounds inflicted in the operation. Efforts have been made to teach pruning at the Botanical Stations, but the demonstrations have not been largely attended, and a great deal of damage continues to be done through ignorance of the objects and effects of pruning. Many of the older plantations, owing to bad treatment and too close planting, are yielding an annually diminishing crop, but new ones are springing up in increasing numbers each year, which is an obvious indication that the industry is proving a profitable one.
Insect Pests and Vegetable Parasites.—Wounds, such as those described above, often render the tree more susceptible to the attacks of insect pests; but, although it has been stated that cocoa trees in the Gold Coast are seriously affected in this way, such is not often the case. Beetles of the Longicorn group are found damaging the tree to some extent wherever it has been planted. Two species are recorded from the West Indies: Steirastoma histrionica, White, from Trinidad, and S. depressa, Linn., from Grenada. On the trees in the Gold Coast Armatosterna buquetiana, White, and a Glenea sp. have been found doing similar damage. These insects deposit their eggs in crevices of the bark or on wounds, and the grubs which emerge bore into the trunk, living and growing in size in the interior of the wood until mature, when they change into pupæ, and finally into beetles. The presence of these grubs is easily detected by the quantity of fine particles of wood or “frass” which are thrown out of the entrance hole; and, if a flexible wire be inserted until it reaches and impales the grub, it will often prevent the damage becoming serious. The nests of large red ants (Œcophylla sp.), which feed upon the saccharine juices which exude from the pods, may often be observed on cocoa trees, but as the ants viciously bite any living thing which may venture upon the tree, they are probably a safeguard against the depredations of rats and squirrels that eat out the contents of the ripe fruit while still on the tree.
COCOA AT MRAMRA ATTACKED BY BLACK COCOA-BARK BUG.
Fig. 16, [p. 51.]
DRYING COCOA BEANS AT MRAMRA.
Fig. 17, [p. 53.]
NATIVE TAPPING INDIGENOUS RUBBER TREE (FUNTUMIA ELASTICA), OBOAMANG, ASHANTI.