Cocoa-Planting

N.G. Official Brings Useful Data From Trinidad

WITH information that is likely to be of value to the planters of New Guinea, Mr. E. C. Green, of the New Guinea Department of Agriculture, has returned to Australia, en route to Rabaul, after eight useful months at the British Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, West Indies.

In Trinidad, Mr. Green rubbed shoul ders with agricultural experts from all over the world. The Professors of the Tropical College hold chairs of Agricul ture, Economics, Mycology, Entomology, and Chemistry; and the 40 students in residence there comprise men sent by the British Colonial Office to do post-gradu ate and refresher courses; students from the various West Indian Colonies who have won scholarships, and men with Ag riculture degrees from various other recognised Colleges of Agriculture. The College is also a recognised institute for tropical agriculture research, and it is at present devoting its energies particularly to cocoa, sugar cane, bananas, and cotton.

Mr. Green, while gathering all possible knowledge concerning tropical agriculture generally, made a special study of cocoa production and cultivation; and has written a thesis on this subject, in which he has dealt particularly with the possi bilities of cocoa cultivation in New Gui nea. This, of course, will be submitted to his chief (Mr. George Murray, Director of Agriculture in New Guinea), and Mr.

Green hopes that it will assist Mr. Murray in extending a knowledge of cocoa culti vation among New Guinea planters.

Chatting with the Editor of the “Pacific Islands Monthly,” Mr. Green explained that there are two types of cocoa culti vated in the world —Forastero and Criollo.

The former is described as an ordinary cocoa and the latter as a fine cocoa. For astero is the type grown on the Gold Coast of Africa, which produces 260,000 tons per annum, and which represents about 60 per cent, of the world’s supply.

Criollo, on the other hand, whilst the better cocoa, is more susceptible to disease and is greatly influenced by soil and climatic conditions; and hybrid crosses between Forastero and Criollo produce the cocoa crop of Ceylon, Java, and West Indies, and other places. Vene zuela’s cocoa production is largely the Criollo type.

The Criollo bean is large, round, and in cross section white; whereas a typical Forastero bean is small, flat, and purple

in cross section. When the Criollo bean is fermented, cured and dried it is a cin namon color in cross section, and it is not astringent and has a very nice aroma; whereas in the lower grades of Forastero the cured bean in cross section shows a dark walnut color, is slightly astringent, and has little aroma. The Forastero varieties are hardy, whereas the varieties in which the Criollo characteristics pre dominate are not so easily cultivated. The type grown on the Gold Coast is mostly Amelonado, which is at the lower end of the Forastero scale.

The cocoa-growing countries other than the Gold Coast grow cocoas of mixed types, from the lowest kind of Forastero up to the almost pure Criollo variety; and the mixture produces a relatively fine cocoa which commands a slightly higher price than the Gold Coast cocoa.

Venezuela gets the full benefit of the dif

ference in prices; but the West Indian cocoa, which is more mixed in character, brings a price only a few shillings per cwt. above the Gold Coast product.

In 1930 the Imperial College of Agricul ture commenced a comprehensive re search concerning cocoa, with the view of producing a kind that will give high quality, heavy yield, and resistance to disease.

There is now an area of approximately 900 hectares under cocoa in New Guinea, and Mr. Green is of opinion that the par ticular varieties under cultivation there may prove to be suitable and profitable.

Cocoa appears to have been introduced

to New Guinea by the Germans from Samoa; and the Samoan cocoa seems tc be mainly a Forastero-Criollo hybrid which came originally from Ceylon and Java. There are a few Criollo trees in the Government Gardens in New Guinea, but the plants generally being cultivated there may be classified as the hybrid re ferred to.

Australia imports about 6000 tons of cocoa per annum, and the Commonwealth Governments offers planters in its Pacific Territories a bonus of £11 per ton.

Therefore, Australia should provide New Guinea cocoa growers with an attractive market —particularly as the planters who

have tried out this crop in New Guinea have shown that the type of cocoa they are growing is satisfactory and that the industry can be profitably undertaken.

It is, however, recommended that before any further extensive planting of cocoa is undertaken in New Guinea it would be advisable to make careful inquiries, with a view of selecting for further planting only types from high yielding trees, and also from trees giving a round bean. The manufacturers definitely do not want a flat bean, which is difficult to roast. Mr.

Green does not think that it will be necessary to introduce new planting material from outside—not only because there is a risk of disease (which is now a very serious matter in the West Indies) but also because the hybrid cocoa plants which have been established in New Guinea are possibly equal or superior in productiveness and quality to the hybrid plants established now in Java and Cey lon.

It would be a very good thing if the Department of Agriculture in New Gui nea, with the co-operation of the planters, could standardize the New Guinea crop of cocoa, making it a high grade that would attract the market, and take steps to maintain and improve that grade. If there is irregular and haphazard cocoa production and export in New Guinea, the average value of the N.G. cocoa will certainly fall.

Types Of Bananas

Investigations concerning banana pro duction interested Mr. Green very much while he was in Trinidad. Panama Dis ease due to a fungus (Fasarium cubense) is causing serious trouble with the banana production of the West Indies and Central America —which supply the Norta American and European markets with all their requirements. There are in general commercial cultivation two main types of bananas —the Gros Michel, a thick skinned, well flavored fruit, which grows in tightly packed bunches and, therefore does not require crating for transport purposes; and the Cavendish type of banana, which is thin-skinned, does not carry on the stem, and has to be crated.

The Gros Michel type, which is supplied to the American and European consumers (chiefly because it carries more easily, thereby reducing freight costs) is very susceptible to Panama disease, whereas the Cavendish banana, which is the com mercial banana of the Pacific —notably in Fiji—is practically immune from the dis ease. In recent year's the fungus has spread tremendously and is making banana cultivation impossible in many large areas in the West Indies and Cent ral America. The growers cannot change over to Cavendish because Cavendish cannot be profitably carried to the mar kets.

The energies of the experts are there fore being directed to research, with a view to producing a banana that will re sist the disease and which at the same time will carry well.

This banana problem is not of great interest in the Pacific, as the method of carrying bananas in crates seems to have been generally adopted here —in any event, there is not a lengthy transport to the markets here, as is the case be tween the West Indies and Europe. There is a wide variety of bananas grown in New Guinea, but they are only for domes tic consumption. Australia grows her own, except for comparatively small con signments from Norfolk Island and Fill.