The Tropical agriculturist and magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society (1910) (14763995562)

Identifier: tropicalagricul351910ceyl (find matches)
Title: The Tropical agriculturist and magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Ceylon Agricultural Society
Subjects: Agriculture Agriculture
Publisher: Colombo : (A.M. & J. Ferguson)
Contributing Library: Field Museum of Natural History
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



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side will largely differ in yields whenonly seedlings are used. The maximumyields of some seedlings will not be morethan 1 lb. of dry cacao annually, whileothers have been known by the writerto yield as much as 15 lb. 3 oz annu-ally, of dry cacao, and others recordedas much as 30 lb. per tree. From this ithas been deduced that, given trees ofspecial character, the annual crop mightbe easily increased. In the Bulletin of the Botanical Depart-ment, Trinidad, April, 1907, I asked thequestion : What is the possible crop ofa tree in full bearing ? It was also sug-gested that careful observations shouldbe made by planters, under which thenumber of pods picked from selectedtrees should be recorded. This was takenup by a leading Trinidad planter, andthe following table gives the resultsobtained :— Yield op Cacao prom Twelve Trees. Date Harvested 1907.JanuaryApril MayJuneJuly Total number of pods harvested. ... 3 ... 176 ... 2 ... 202... 24 ... 64 ... 23 ... 134 ... 24 ... 321 ... 22 ... 249
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August, 1910.) 115 Edible Products. Date Harvested.1907. August September October November December ... 27 ... 24 ... 22 ... 12 ... 3 ... 17 Years total 1908January ... 3... 9 February ... 20Total Total number ofpods harvested. 26 37 63 99139307 1,817533361344 1,238 The table showing a years producefrom selected ttees, being an actualyield, is strong evidence that progresson the lines of selection of prolific anddisease-resisting kind will be the bestmeans of increasing the annual yield, andthat there is a large margin between theyield per tree here found and thatwhich estates are at present credited.If trees under ordinary culture canproduce the yield of our table, it issurely possible, given well-planted treesof the same character (produced bybudding or grafting), to increase mater-ially the annual yield, leaving out allreference to increase by manuring. The period of growth of a cacao podfrom flower to maturity extends fromfour and a half to five mouths, that is,from the opening of