The Food of the Gods | Page 7

usual to plant the "catch crop" for the sake of a small
return on the land, as well as to meet this need.
In Trinidad, at the same time that the cacao[10] is planted at about
twelve feet centres, large forest trees are also planted at from fifty to
sixty feet centres, to provide permanent shade. The tree most used for
this purpose is the Bois Immortelle (_Erythrina umbrosa_); but others
are also employed, and experiments are now being made on some
estates to grow rubber as a shade tree. In recent clearings in Samoa,
trees are left standing at intervals to serve this end.
[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