Cacao : a manual on the cultivation and curing of cacao / by John Hinchley Hart.

  • Hart, John Hinchley, 1847-1911.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Cacao : a manual on the cultivation and curing of cacao / by John Hinchley Hart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    name, and appears to suggest some connection with the “ Wari,” or wild hog, probably a peccary (Dicotyles) which is known^to emit from a gland on the back a strong-smell- ing fluid. From information gathered when in Nicaragua, and from observations made on trees introduced by the author to Trinidad (which have fruited), it is certain that commer- cial cacao of fine quality is produced by Theobroma penta- gona, the beans of which are nearly double the size of the average Trinidad bean. Theobroma bicolor and T. angustifolia were unsuccessfully introduced to Jamaica in 1885, the seeds all failing, but in 1893 the author introduced into Trinidad Theobroma bicolor, T. angustifolia, T. pentagona, and the variety of Theobroma cacao known as Nicaraguan Criollo in consider- able numbers, as growing plants. These trees have all pro- duced fruit and have been widely distributed locally and to Ceylon and other places by the Botanical Department, the last to be propagated being T. angustifolia which only furnished fertile seeds in 1907, or fourteen years after intro- duction, the others having produced good seed several years ago. Theobroma pentagona promises to become a favourite with West Indian planters owing to the large size of its beans. From supplies sent by the author to Dominica, Mr. Jones, of the Botanic Station, has been very successful in grafting it upon stocks of Theobroma cacao. Theobroma angustifolia is a larger grower than any other known species, but it does not produce commercial cacao, and is only of botanical interest. The same may be said of Theobroma bicolor. So far, they have not been a success as stocks for the best kinds of commercial cacao, but they may prove suitable on further experiment. Herrania albi- flora and Pachira insignis have both been sent to the author as “ wild ” cacao, but neither of these trees has anything in common with Theobroma cacao, and neither of them produces saleable samples. According to Aublet’s illustrations the pods of Theobroma guianensis are small and oval, distinctly marked with five