Note 4 — X

F. Engel mentions a disease (mancha) which attacks the tree in America, beginning by destroying its roots. The tree soon dies, and the disease spreads so rapidly that whole groves of cacao-trees utterly perish and are turned into pastures for cattle. Even in the most favored localities, after a long season of prosperity, thousands of trees are destroyed in a single night by this disease, just as the harvest is about to take place. An almost equally dangerous foe to cultivation is a moth whose larva entirely destroys the ripe cacao beans; and which only cold and wind will kill. Humboldt mentions that cacao beans which have been transported over the chilly passes of the Cordilleras are never attacked by this pest.