When the plantation is made upon forest lands, it is necessary to
cut and burn all underbrush, together with all timber trees other
than those designed for shade. If such shade trees are left (and the
advisability of leaving them will be discussed in the proper place),
only those of the pulse or bean family are to be recommended. It should
also be remembered that, owing in part to the close planting of cacao
and in part to the fragility of its wood and its great susceptibility
to damage resulting from wounds, subsequent removal of large shade
trees from the plantation is attended with difficulty and expense,
and the planter should leave few shade trees to the hectare. Clearing
the land should be done during the dry season, and refuse burned in
situ, thereby conserving to the soil the potash salts so essential
to the continued well-being of cacao.
The land should be deeply plowed, and, if possible, subsoiled as well,
and then, pending the time of planting the orchard, it may be laid
down to corn, cotton, beans, or some forage plant. Preference should
be given to "hoed crops," as it is essential to keep the surface in
open tilth, as well as to destroy all weeds.
The common practice in most cacao-growing countries is to simply dig
deep holes where the trees are to stand, and to give a light working
to the rest of the surface just sufficient to produce the intermediate
crops. This custom is permissible only on slopes too steep for the
successful operation of a side hill plow, or where from lack of draft
animals all cultivation has to be done by hand.
Cacao roots deeply, and with relatively few superficial feeders,
and the deeper the soil is worked the better.