CHAPTER VIII 



DISEASES AND ENEMIES 



THOUGH a large number of fungi have been described as 

 parasites of the cocoa tree, the parasitic character of 

 many of them has by no means been proved, and in the 

 case of several there is no reason to suppose that they 

 do any harm. The number of diseases caused to cocoa 

 by fungi may accordingly be considered as compara- 

 tively small, and the number of insects which attack the 

 plant can also be regarded as being not very large. 

 Among both categories of enemies, however, there are a 

 few which are very destructive and cause enormous loss 

 in the countries where they are prevalent. This is the 

 case in Java with the cocoa-moth and the Helopeltis, in 

 Ecuador with the " mosquilla," and in Surinam with 

 the so-called " witch-broom " fungus. 



The natures of the diseases to which cocoa is subject 

 in Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, San Domingo, and Haiti 

 are almost wholly unknown ; and of those occurring in 

 San Thome and the French colonies, Martinique and 

 Guadeloupe, our information is not more than frag- 

 mentary. It is only in some of the English and Dutch 

 colonies (the Antilles, Java, Surinam, Ceylon) that 

 thorough investigations have been carried out and 

 important practical results obtained ; but in the last few 

 years competent mycologists and entomologists have 

 begun to study the cocoa diseases in the German 

 colonies (Kamerun, Samoa). A complete review of the 

 diseases and insect-pests of the cocoa plant through- 

 out the whole cocoa-growing world can therefore not be 



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