DISEASES, ETC. 



67 



from the apparently healthy ones, broken at a distance from the 

 trees and the husk? either burnt or else treated in heaps with 

 quick lime and covered with soil. As an alternative the husks 

 might be treated with a solution of half a pound of sulphate of 

 iron (green vitriol) to one gallon of water or with Bordeaux 

 mixture, but we are satisfied that the destruction of the pods by 

 burning is the most effective process. 



(Signed) J. B. HARRISON, M.A. 



There are probably several other parasitic fungi which 

 -affect the cacao tree, but those mentioned are all which have 

 been properly determined as growing upon the cacao tree in 

 Trinidad. 



Among the insect pests of Trinidad there is none for the 

 planter to contend with worse than the " parasol ant" ((Ecodoma, 

 ceplialotes) and the " cacao beetles" (Steirastoma histrionica) and 

 allied species Steirastomy, depressa has been found destructive 

 to Cacao in Grenada. The beetles attack the plant by deposit- 

 ing their eggs in crevices of the bark or small wounds, or under 

 the bark in holes made by the insect itself. The larvae when 

 hatched, cuts long channels through the soft wood of the branches 

 to such an extent that a slight breeze will break away the 

 branch, and sometimes the attack of the grub or larvae is so 

 persistent as to kill the tree. The larvse may sometimes be 

 destroyed by probing the holes with a stout wire, thus 

 impaling the creature at its work. This is not always possible, 

 but where the life of a valuable tree is at stake, every endeavour 

 should be made to arrest the destructive progress of the larvse or 

 grub, which can generally be found and destroyed without much 

 injury to the tree, if a close and careful examination is made. 

 In cutting out a grub, care should be taken to make the wound 

 as small and as little jagged as possible, and to cover it at once 

 with the mixture recommended in a former part of this work for 

 covering of wounds made when pruning. 



The Parasol Ant is truly the bete noir of the Cacao planter 

 ,nd generally of the Agri- Horticultural community. Until one 

 becomes fully acquainted with the persis'.ent depredations of this 

 creature it is hard to realize what an immense amount of damage is 

 effected by it alone. So much is this the. c ise that the Legislative 

 Council of Trinidad lately passed an Ordinance which enables 

 the Governor to declare certain districts infected, and to enable 

 planters to take means for their destruction. 



The destruction of this pest is extremely simple, but from 

 the persistence with which impiegnated females seek the spots 



