Cacao Culture in the Philippines

by William Scrugham Lyon

It may be said for the benefit of those unable to adopt more scientific methods: Let the seed bed be selected in a well-shaded spot, and, if possible, upon a rather stiff, plastic, but well-drained soil. After this is well broken up and made smooth, broadcast over all 3 or 4 inches of well-decomposed leaf mold mixed with sand, and in this sow the seed in furrows about 1 inch deep. This sowing should be made during the dry season, not only to avoid the beating and washing of violent storms but to have the nursery plants of proper size for planting at the opening of the rainy season. The seed bed should be accessible to water, in order that it may be conveniently watered by frequent sprinklings throughout the dry season.

The rich top dressing will stimulate the early growth of the seedling, and when its roots enter the heavier soil below it will encourage a stocky growth. Four or five months later the roots will be so well established in the stiffer soil that if lifted carefully each plant may be secured with a ball of earth about its roots, placed in a tray or basket, and in this way carried intact to the field. Plants thus reared give to the inexperienced an assurance of success not always obtained by the trained or veteran planter of bare rooted subjects.

Cultivation.

Planters are united in the opinion that pruning, cutting, or in any way lacerating the roots is injurious to the cacao, and in deference to this opinion all cultivation close to the tree should be done with a harrow-tooth cultivator, or shallow scarifier. All intermediate cultivation should be deep and thorough, whenever the mechanical condition of the soil will permit it. A plant stunted in youth will never make a prolific tree; early and continuous growth can only be secured by deep and thorough cultivation.

Of even more consideration than an occasional root cutting is any injury, however small, to the tree stem, and on this account every precaution should be taken to protect the trees from accidental injury when plowing or cultivating. The whiffletree of the plow or cultivator used should be carefully fendered with rubber or a soft woolen packing that will effectually guard against the carelessness of workmen. Wounds in the bark or stem offer an inviting field for the entry of insects or the spores of fungi, and are, furthermore, apt to be overlooked until the injury becomes deep seated and sometimes beyond repair.

With the gradual extension of root development, cultivation will be reduced to a narrow strip between the rows once occupied by the plantain or the abacá, but, to the very last, the maintenance of the proper soil conditions should be observed by at least one good annual plowing and by as many superficial cultivations as the growth of the trees and the mechanical state of the land will admit.

Pruning.

When left to its own resources the cacao will fruit for an almost indefinite time. When well and strenuously grown it will bear much more abundant fruit from its fifth to its twenty-fifth year, and by a simple process of renewal can be made productive for a much longer time.