is to be avoided, but moderately steep suits very well;- rich
flats are the best.” 1
Shading for the first four or five years is necessary, and
for this purpose there are many suitable trees, for although
heavy shading is not required when once the plant is well
established, still light flickering shade is very beneficial; and
amongst other shading trees may be mentioned the Grevillea
robusta, the tree known in Trinidad as “ madre de cacao ;
Ficus glomerata; and the Albizzia stipulata (used foi shading
tea in Assam). But for first shading nothing can equal
bananas. “ The banana used for shade,” says Mr. Hart, “ is
usually planted intermediately between permanent rows of
cocoa. If cocoa is at 15 feet, then banana *]\ feet, and
so on.”
Mr. D. Morris, Assistant Director at Kew, in speaking of
cacao cultivation in Jamaica, sa ys :— “ Some years ago we
thought the chocolate industry had almost died out in Jamaica.
It had been so neglected that, except in some few places, no
cocoa trees were left. Then the endeavour was made to
revive the industry. There is not the slightest difficulty in
establishing a. cocoa estate; you already have your banana
shading; all that is left to do is to raise the plants and
put them under the shade of the bananas. The - cocoa trees
only require to be carefully planted and pruned, all the
shoots removed, and the trees encouraged to send out their
bearing branches so that the pods borne on the stem of the
plant may have plenty of space, light, and air.”
The above applies with equal force to Zanzibar; here also
bananas are plentiful, and the fertile areas, extending especially
through the centre of the island, are, in my opinion,
excellently adapted for the cultivation of this valuable tree.
The spaces between rows of clove trees might also be planted
with cacao, and once its adaptability had been conclusively
proved, the clove trees might be cut down and the area of
their cultivation more equalized with that of other products
less precarious in value, as well as less exacting in respect of
labour and attention.
Cacao seeds soon lose their vitality, and it would be
1 Cocoa Cultivation in Ceylon, by W. Jardine.
necessary to introduce the cultivation either by means of
young plants brought over in Wardian cases, or else, as
originally suggested by me to the Directors of the Imperial
British East Africa Company, the pods might be carried
from Ceylon as far as possible and then broken, the seeds being
then placed to germinate amongst refuse coir, and on arrival
immediately planted out. The seeds and plants should be
procured from Ceylon on account of its proximity and the
higher prices it commands.
3. The NUTMEG TREE (Myristica moschata) is another
product which should prove a valuable accession, the soil of
the island being also suitable for its cultivation. The comparatively
long interval that must elapse before returns can be
expected—seven to nine years— must always tend to restrict
its cultivation, and maintain the present high prices.
“ A strong, rich, and rather moist loam is the most favourable
to nutmegs, as when planted on a sandy soil the trees are
not nearly so productive.” 1 In a report on the cultivation
of spices in Bencoolen, Sumatra, it is said that “ the soil
throughout the plantations generally is a red mould, with
stony fragments or pebbles frequently intermixed with it,
the surface of it in the forest alluvial and low lands beinsr
of a chocolate colour varying in depth from 3 inches to 10
and 12 inches.”
4. The CINNAMON TREE (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) is well
suited for cultivation in the sandy soil which is "a frequent
characteristic of Zanzibar Island, though present prices are
not encouraging :—'
I The quality of the soil is a most important feature in the
cultivation of cinnamon: a dry, sandy soil, which would be
inimical to the successful growth of most trees, being an
essential condition of success in This case. Not only is the
general growth of the tree beneficially influenced by a silicious
soil, but the quality and early maturity of the bark produced
under these conditions is superior to that of trees grown in
hard, stiff, or wet soil. Grown under favourable conditions,
the trees can be made to yield their first product in five years,
but in wet or heavy soils, or in shaded situations, not only are,
1 Porter’s Tropical Agriculturist.