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on the tender fruit as small black spots. They injure the 

 outer covering of the young cacao-fruit, by which they do not 

 reach to maturity, and if they do, they are very poor and small, 

 while the beans, by imperfect maturity, are white on the breach. 



Tree- ants occasionally cover a part of the stem, or a whole 

 branch, building there a large nest. In the rainy season you 

 must try to destroy them by firing the nest, taking good care, 

 however, that the fire do not extend to the tree. Sometimes 

 a bucket or tub filled with kerosine oil is placed close to the 

 nest, which is then wrenched off and dropped into the tub, and 

 the oil immediately set on fire. In this manner with a little 

 dexterity the ants are sure not to escape. Ants' nests in the 

 ground are destroyed by means of water. The nest is first filled 

 with water, you then stir it up till it becomes a pool of mud; 

 and doing this three or four days successively will destroy all 

 the ants. It is, of course, a necessity to have a plentiful supply 

 of water at hand for this purpose. 



Sulphide of carbon (C S 2 ) which can be had of any chemist, 

 can also be used to exterminate ants, but their destruction by 

 means of water is much the best way. 



Nests of woodlice are found in all the cacao-fields. It has 

 been computed that one tree in a hundred bears a nest of 

 woodlice. In some fields they are rarer, in others there are none 

 at all. The only way to destroy them is poisoning by arsenic 

 or sublimate. The poison is simply strewed over the nest ; this 

 does not kill all the immates, as a part of them emigrate to 

 other trees, but it is proved experimentally that a tree, in which 

 a nest has once been poisoned, remains for years preserved 



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