78 CACAO 



The number of diseases recorded from countries supplied with botanic 

 institutions possessing mycologists and entomologists is at first sight alarming. 

 There are countries where, though cacao has been cultivated for many years, 

 the records of specific diseases are very scanty ; usually the diseases are in 

 existence in such places, but have not been identified on account of the absence 

 of officers engaged in such research. 



He also records that Preuss, in his " Tour of Central and 

 South America," found Phytophthora in Ecuador ; that in 

 Surinam the diseases appeared to him to be similar to 

 those in the Cameroons, and that several diseases have 

 also been reported from Java and Samoa. He adds : 



If to these lists be added the names of the fungi collected and examined by 

 Hart, Lewton-Brain, Howard and Stockdale in the West Indies, and by Car- 

 ruthers and Fetch in Ceylon, and the insect pests described by Maxwell-Lefroy 

 and Green, an unpleasant array of pests is before the prospective cacao-planter. 



In a paper read before the West Indian Agricultural 

 Conference, West Indian Bulletin (vol. i. p. 422), quoting 

 from Long's "History of Jamaica," it is mentioned 

 that probably the first record of disease in cacao was a 

 " blast " suffered in Jamaica in 1671, where, it is reported 

 sixty-five " walks " were destroyed, and following this 

 comes the Trinidad " epidemic " recorded by De Verteuil. 

 Few, if any, records of disease appear to exist which are 

 available to the public for the long interval between 1727 

 and 1895, when Professor J. B. Harrison sent the writer 

 diseased pods from Grenada, upon which an indefinite 

 report was made. The study of later specimens, however, 

 proved the disease to be of fungus origin. Some of the 

 pods were sent on to Kew, but it was reported that they 

 had lost in transit all trace of the original disease, and had 

 become a dense mass of variously coloured hyphce. Mr. 

 Massee subsequently suggested the preparation of artificial 

 cultures, and these having been successfully prepared 

 were transmitted, with the result that the fungus was 

 determined as Phytophthora omnivora, De Bary. Pods 

 were afterwards sent which proved to be also infected with 

 Nectria Bainii, Massee n. sp., these being probably the 

 first two cacao diseases scientifically recorded from the 

 West Indies. 



The list of fungus pests of the cacao-tree given on pages 



