me-coloured flowers, each "shafted like a
scimitar." It well repays the labour of climbing a hill to look down on
this vermilion glory. Some Trinidad planters believe that their trees
would die without shade, yet in Grenada, only a hundred miles North as
the steamer sails, there are whole plantations without a single shade
tree. The Grenadians say: "You cannot have pods without flowers, and you
cannot have good flowering without light and air." Shade trees are not
used on some estates in San Thome, and in Brazil there are cocoa kings
with 200,000 trees without one shade tree. It should be mentioned,
however, that in these countries the cacao trees are planted more
closely (about eight feet apart) and themselves shade the soil.
Professor Carmody, in reporting[2] recently on the result of a four
years' experiment with (1) shade, (2) no shade, (3) partial shade,
says that so far partial shade has given the best results. No general
solution has yet been found to the question of the advantage of shade,
and, as Shaw states for morality, so in agriculture, "the golden rule is
that there is no golden rule." Not only is there the personal factor,
but nature provides an infinite variety of environments, and the best
results are obtained by the use of methods appropriate to the local
conditions.

[2] _Bulletin_ Dept. of Agriculture, Trinidad, 1916.

[Illustration: CACAO TREES, SHADED BY KAPOK (_Eriodendron Anfractuosum_)
IN JAVA.
(reproduced from van Hall's _Cocoa_, by permission of Messrs. Macmillan
& Co.)]

[Illustration: CACAO TREES, SHADED BY BOIS IMMORTEL, TRINIDAD.]

_Form of Tree-growth Desired: Suckers._

Viscount Mountmorres, in a delightfully clear exposition of cacao
cultivation which he gave to the native farmers and chiefs of the Gold
Coast in 1906, said: "In pruning, it is necessary always to bear in mind
that the best shape for cacao trees is that of an enlarged open
umbrella," with a height under the umbrella not exceeding seven feet.
With this ideal in his mind, the planter should train up the tree in the
way it should go. Viscount Mountmorres also said that everything that
grows upwards, except the main stem, must be cut off.

This opens a question which is of great interest to planters as to
whether it is wise to allow shoots to grow out from the main trunk near
the ground. Some hold that the high yield on their plantation is due to
letting these upright shoots grow. "Mi Amigo Corsicano said: 'Dia