Page:Cacao by Dahlgren, B. E. (Bror Eric).djvu/21

Rh Esmeralda are the most highly esteemed. Trinidad cacao takes a high rank. Brazil and Cayenne ship the less desirable, unfermented grade of beans gathered partly from trees growing wild in the forest. The price has recently been low and the groving not very profitable to the planters. The trees require considerable care. As in the case of many tropical products a low price is dependent on very cheap labor, and the recent general increase of labor costs, without a corresponding rise in the price of the product of the plantations, has made production in places almost an impossibility. Unprofitable plantations are permitted to go to ruin. They continue to yield some cacao for a few years without care. When a dwindling of the supply eventually reacts on the price, active production will presumably be started again, till a commercial satiety is produced. New trees come into bearing in their fifth or sixth year. Cacao growing is evidently a somewhat risky business. Particularly is this true since the grower has to contend with a host of pests and diseases, chiefly caused by parasitic fungi which are extremely destructive to the trees where they obtain a hold.

In some cases these fungi have been traced to the taller trees which are planted among the Cacao trees for shade. Many kinds of shade trees have been tried, such as palms, the large-leaved Anchory Pear, and others, but the favorite one is the leguminous Madre de Cacao, "Mother of the Cocoa", the Bois immortelle of Trinidad. This is a rapidly growing deciduous tree which easily towers over the low chocolate trees, lending an interesting note of bright color and variety to the plantations, particularly in our winter season. These tall conspicuous trees then shed their leaves and are covered only with bright red flowers. At this time the rays of the sun are less intense, even in most of the tropical places where the Cacao grows in the [ 37 ]