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Page 9
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Samoa: Cacao in its fourth Year.]
In Grenada, British West Indies, and some other districts, shade is
entirely dispensed with, and the trees are planted at about eight feet
centres, thus forming a denser foliage. By this means at least 500
trees will be raised on an acre, against less than 300 in Trinidad,
the result showing almost invariably a larger output from the Grenada
estates. This practice is better suited to steep hillside plantations
than to those in open valleys or on the plains.
The cacao leaves, at first a tender yellowish-brown, ultimately turn
to a bright green, and attain a considerable size, often fourteen to
eighteen inches in length, sometimes even larger. The tree is subject
to scale insects, which attack the leaf, also to grubs, which quickly
rot the limbs and trunks, this last being at one time a very serious
pest in Ceylon. If left to Nature the trees are quickly covered
lichen, moss, "vines," ferns, and innumerable parasitic growths, and
the cost of keeping an estate free from all the natural enemies which
would suck the strength of the tree and lessen the crop is very great.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Young Cultivation, with catch
Crop of Bananas, Cassava, and Tania: Trinidad.]
The cacao will bloom in its third year, but does not bear fruit till
its fourth or fifth. The flower is small, out of all proportion to the
size of the mature fruit. Little clusters of these tiny pink and
yellow blossoms show in many places along the old wood of the tree,
often from the upright trunk itself, and within a few inches of the
ground; they are extremely delicate, and a planter will be satisfied
if every third or fourth produces fruit. In dry weather or cold, or
wind, the little pods only too quickly shrivel into black shells; but
if the season be good they as quickly swell, till, in the course of
three or four months, they develop into full grown pods from seven to
twelve inches long. During the last month of ripening they are subject
to the attack of a fresh group of enemies--squirrels, monkeys, rats,
birds, deer, and others, some of them particularly annoying, as it is
often found that when but a small hole has been made, and a bean or
so extracted, the animal passes on to similarly attack another pod;
such pods rot at once. Snakes generally abound in the cacao regions,
and are never killed, being regarded as the planter's best friends,
from their hostility to his animal foes. A boa will probably destroy
more than the most zealous hunter's gun.
[Illustration--Drawing: PODS OF CACAO THEOBROMA.]
From its twelfth to its sixtieth year, or later, each tree will bear
from fifty to a hundred and fifty pods, according to the season, each
pod containing from thirty-six to forty-two beans. Eleven pods will
produce about a pound of cured beans, and the average yield of a large
estate will be, in some cases, four hundredweight per acre, in
others, twice as much. The trees bear nearly all the year round, but
only two harvests are gathered, the most abundant from November to
January, known as the "Christmas crop," and a smaller picking about
June, known as the "St. John's crop." The trees throw off their old
leaves about the time of picking, or soon after; should the leaves
change at any other time, the young flower and fruit will also
probably wither.
Of the many varieties of the cacao, the best known are the _criollo_,
_forastero_, and _calabacilla_. The _criollo_ ("native") fruit is of
average size, characterized by a "pinched" neck and a curving point.
This is the best kind, though not the most productive; it is largely
planted in Venezuela, Columbia and Ceylon, and produces a bean light
in colour and delicate in flavour. The _forastero_ ("foreign") pod is
long and regular in shape, deeply furrowed, and generally of a rough
surface. The _calabacilla_ ("little calabash") is smooth and round,
like the fruit after which it is named. All varieties are seen in
bearing with red, yellow, purple, and sometimes green pods, the colour
not being necessarily an indication of ripeness.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Varieties of the Cacao.]
On breaking open the pod, the beans are seen clinging in a cluster
round a central fibre, the whole embedded in a white sticky pulp,
through which the red skin of the cacao-bean shows a delicate pink.
The pulp has the taste of acetic acid, refreshing in a hot climate,
but soon dries if exposed to the sun and air. The pod or husk is of a
porous, woody nature, from a quarter to half an inch thick, which,
when thrown aside on warm moist soil, rots in a day or two.
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