124 CACAO 



on estates surrounded by forest lands, and is seldom found 

 in sufficient numbers to do much damage. It affords 

 good food. 



No. 33. Monkey (Mycetes seniculus). — This monkey is 

 found in the forest, but is not present in sufficient numbers 

 to do appreciable damage, except perhaps in woodland 

 districts. On the mainland and in Central America 

 several species are known to be especially destructive to 

 cacao, upon which they at times descend in marauding 

 armies. In Ecuador Baron Eggers has reported them as 

 numerous, and has stated that a large amount of the 

 forest cacao from which the supply of produce is drawn 

 is grown from seeds carried by the monkeys into the forest, 

 some of which, falling to the ground, germinate and grow 

 into excellent trees. This fact appears good evidence 

 of the value of shade. 



No. 34. Man. Homo of species. — Probably more 

 damage is really done to cacao plantations by man than 

 by any other influence except destruction by fungi. The 

 principal damage to plantations is done by the ignorant 

 and careless of the labouring classes. A few years since 

 it was a common thing for members of a cutlass gang 

 weeding a field, to find a resting-place for their tool by 

 sending it sufficiently deep into the nearest cacao-tree to 

 hold it until again to be used. It was a common thing, 

 until recent date, to find branches hacked off with a cutlass, 

 erroneously termed pruning, without regard to the making 

 of a wound, leaving sometimes a foot or more of wood 

 (ton-kon) to die back to the main stem, thus causing heart 

 rot of the stem and ultimately a hollow centre. In fact, 

 in the olden time, the utter want of knowledge of the 

 physiology of plant life led to the adoption of what are 

 to-day considered barbarous methods in planting, pruning, 

 and general cultivation. The practice on the cacao estates 

 was of the crudest character, founded upon the " rule of 

 thumb " methods of European and American agriculturists 

 of the olden time, together with many of the traditional 

 customs and superstitions of the aborigines. During the 



