226 



CACAO 



CACTI 



adapted to drinking, are imported from Ceylon and 

 Ecuador. • The highest-priced cacao on the market 

 is that grown in a small region in the interior of 

 Ecuador. In the trade this is known as "arriba." 



The following table, taken from the Monthly- 

 Summary of Commerce and Finance of July, 1905, 

 Sives the cacao production of the world in 1897: 



Cacao Production op the World, 1897. 



Countries %"^ity 



Ecuador 22,000 



Trinidad 10,000 



Other British West Indies 9,000 



Portuguese Africa 7,700 



Brazil 7,500 



Venezuela 6,000 



Dutch Guiana .• 4,500 



Haiti 4,000 



Colombia 3,000 



Ceylon 1,650 



Java 1,000 



Guadeloupe and Martinique .... 800 



Santo Domingo 150 



Niger Coast 55 



French Guiana 30 



Congo 5 



Total 77,390 



Although there are regions in Hawaii, Porto Rico 

 and the Philippines well adapted to the growing of 

 cacao, these islands produce only an infinitesimal 

 part of the seventy million pounds annually con- 

 sumed in this country. With a knowledge of the 

 necessary eonditions of growth and an apprecia- 

 tion of the value of a uniform product, the grow- 

 ing of cacao in our tropical islands should be a 

 pleasant and remunerative occupation. 



Literature. 



For fuller information the following references 

 are given: Cacao, J. H. Hart (1900), second edi- 



tion ; Uebersicht der bis jetzt bekannten Arten 

 von Theobroma, G. Bernoulli (1871); Cacao Cul- 

 ture in the Philippines, W. S. Lyon (1902), Philip- 

 pine Bureau of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin 

 No. 2; Expedition nach Central- und Siidamerika, 

 Paul Preuss (1901); Les Plantes Tropicales de 

 Grande Culture, B. de Wildeman (1902); Cacao: 

 All About It, "Historicus" (1896); A Treatise on 

 Cacao, P. Emmanuel Olivieri (1903), Trinidad. 



CACTI AS FORAGE. Figs. 321, 322. 



Stock in the southern part of the range country 

 feed more or less on prickly pear, and under pres- 

 sure of hard circumstances will forage on many 

 kinds of cacti. Fat c&ttle often eat the fruits of 

 certain cacti, apparently from preference. Inas- 

 much as great areas of the southern range country 

 produce cacti of many kinds and in abundance, it 

 becomes an important question as to how far the 

 plants can be profitably utilized for forage. The 

 interest in the subject is naturally increasing, with 

 the settlement of the country; and this interest has 

 been hastened of late by the discussions regarding 

 the breeding of spineless cacti. 



So far as present investigations show, spineless 

 cacti are of little economic importance under ex- 

 isting range conditions in the West unless grown 

 to maturity in enclosures. The only reason why 

 cacti can remain on the range and attain full 

 growth is because of the protection the spines 

 give them. On an overstocked range, spineless 

 cacti would be consumed before they had fairly 

 started growth. Fig. 321 shows what occurs when 

 cattle have access to more or less spineless forms. 

 In many sections, jack-rabbits are destructive to 

 the spineless cacti. 



The spineless cactus is not a recent development. 

 The following flat-jointed Opuntias are spineless in 

 large part: 0. deeumbens; 0. tormri,tosa; 0. Pes- 

 corvi; 0. vulgaris; 0. Bafinesquii; 

 0. erassa; 0. Fieus-Indiea; 0. fili- 

 pendula; forms of 0. robusta; 0. 



Fig. 321. Cacti after having been visited by stoclc. A spiny form; spineless 

 plants would have received stiU worse usage. 



The following Opuntias are spine- 

 less but have objectionable spicules: 

 0. hasilaris; 0. inamana; 0. iner- 

 mis; 0. mierodasys; 0. mieroearpa; 

 0. rufida; 0. Treleasii. 



Many spineless forms are grown in 

 Mexico that might easily be propa- 

 gated if that kind were thought to 

 be of any practical value. Present 

 knowledge is not sufficient to state 

 whether the spineless forms will grow 

 as well as the native spiny forms in 

 the same region. 



The use of spine-bearing cacti. 



The spines are of course objection- 

 able to the feeding of cacti. Whether 

 spineless cacti will some day be regu- 

 larly bred and planted it is not neces- 

 sary now to enquire: the spines are 

 easily and cheaply burned off. 



With a.. gasoline blow-torch, or 



