This will complete the third year and the formative stage of the plant. Subsequent prunings will be conducted on the same lines, with the modification that when the secondary branches are again cut back, the room in the head of the tree will rarely admit of more than one, at most two, tertiary branches being allowed to remain. When these are grown to an extent that brings the total height of the tree to 3 or 4 meters, they should be cut back annually, at the close of the dry season. Such minor operations as the removal of thin, wiry, or hide-bound growths and all suckers suggest themselves to every horticulturist, whether he be experienced in cacao growing or not. When a tree is exhausted by overbearing, or has originally been so ill formed that it is not productive, a strong sucker or "gourmand" springing from near the ground may be encouraged to grow. By distributing the pruning over two or three periods, in one year the old tree can be entirely removed and its place substituted by the "gourmand." During the third year flowers will be abundant and some fruit will set, but it is advisable to remove it while small and permit all of the energy of the plant to be expended in wood making. From what we know of its flowering habit, it is obvious that every operation connected with the handling or pruning of a cacao, should be conducted with extreme care; to see that the bark is never injured about the old leaf scars, for to just the extent it is so injured is the fruit-bearing area curtailed. Further, no pruning cut should ever be inflicted, except with the sharpest of knives and saws, and the use of shears, that always bruise to some extent, is to be avoided. All the rules that are laid down for the guidance of the pruning of most orchard trees in regard to clean cuts, sloping cuts, and the covering of large wounds with tar or resin apply with fourfold force to the cacao. Its wood is remarkably spongy and an easy prey to the enemies ever lying in wait to attack it, and the surest remedies for disease are preventive ones, and by the maintenance of the bark of the tree at all times in the sound condition, we are assured that it is best qualified to resist invasion. Of the great number of worm-riddled trees to be seen in the Archipelago, it is easy in every case to trace the cause to the neglect and brutal treatment which left them in a condition to invite the attacks of disease of every kind. HARVEST. The ripening period of cacao generally occurs at two seasons of the year, but in these islands the most abundant crop is obtained at about the commencement of the dry season, and the fruits continue to ripen for two months or longer. The time of its approaching maturity is easily recognized by the tyro by the unmistakable aroma of chocolate that pervades the orchard at that period, and by some of the pods turning reddish or yellow according to the variety.