Bror Eric Dahlgren

“ 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. ”

“ Other species of Theobroma also furnish nourishing food or drink to a lesser extent but are less valuable or less amenable to cultivation. There are about a dozen of these. The best known of them is the Tiger Cacao, or "Pataste", Theobroma bicolor, of Colombia and Rio Negro, a much larger and taller tree than the Cacao tree proper. The famous cacao of Soconusco is said to be the product of Theobroma angustifolia, and the cacao of Esmeralda of still another species. The beans of an inferior kind were used in Mexico as alms for the poor. ”

“ The cultivated Cacao is a small shade-loving tree, which is usually kept down in plantations to about the size of a peach tree, but grows much more rapidly and bears large simple leaves which remain a long time on the tree. It produces its flowers and fruits in a curious manner peculiar to certain members of the tropical forest flora. ”

“ To clean or polish the beans they are sometimes treaded with the naked feet, or "danced". In some localities they are colored with a red earth to improve their appearance. The dried "beans" will keep for a long time. A bearing tree in good condition, will yield a pound to two pounds of dried beans, usually in two principal harvests occurring about the beginning and middle of the year, though pods keep ripening to a certain extent continuously. The cacao bean "eats like a rich nut", but has a rather bitter taste. ”

“ The rest, all natives of tropical America, are of some local importance and the fruit of several is gathered in Brazil where they grow wild. Some of them may be adaptable for stock or for grafting, as recent experiments would indicate. ”

“ In all, the American production amounts to over a hundred and fifty thousand tons. The rest of the world's output combined, adds only a third more to the available supply. The cultivation of the Cacao has been undertaken on the West Coast of Africa; on the Gold Coast, in Cameroons and in the Congo Free State, but by far the greater part of the African supply is furnished by Sao Thomé. This small Portuguese island in the Gulf of Guinea, alone yields more cacao beans than any single American country. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Each of these countries furnishes over twenty thousand tons each year. Venezuela exports a little more than half as much; the Caribbean island Grenada about a quarter, or about five thousand tons a year. Cuba, Porto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and other West Indian islands produce smaller quantities, while Mexico evidently supplies only a negligible amount for export. ”