Part 1

Philippine Bureau of Agriculture.

Farmer's Bulletin No. 2.

CACAO CULTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES

By

WILLIAM S. LYON,

In charge of seed and plant introduction.

Prepared under the direction of the Chief of the Bureau.

Manila:

Bureau of Public Printing.

1902.

CONTENTS.

Page.

Letter of transmittal 4 Introduction 5 Climate 6 The plantation site 7 The soil 7 Preparation of the soil 8 Drainage 8 Forming the plantation 9 Selection of varieties 10 Planting 11 Cultivation 13 Pruning 13 Harvest 16 Enemies and diseases 18 Manuring 19 Supplemental notes 21 New varieties 21 Residence 21 Cost of a cacao plantation 22

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

Sir: I submit herewith an essay on the cultivation of cacao, for the use of planters in the Philippines. This essay is prompted first, because much of the cacao grown here is of such excellent quality as to induce keen rivalry among buyers to procure it at an advance of quite 50 per cent over the common export grades of the Java bean, notwithstanding the failure on the part of the local grower to "process" or cure the product in any way; second, because in parts of Mindanao and Negros, despite ill treatment or no treatment, the plant exhibits a luxuriance of growth and wealth of productiveness that demonstrates its entire fitness for those regions and leads us to believe in the successful extension of its propagation throughout these Islands; and lastly because of the repeated calls upon the Chief of the Agricultural Bureau for literature or information bearing upon this important horticultural industry.

The importance of cacao-growing in the Philippines can hardly be overestimated. Recent statistics place the world's demand for cacao (exclusive of local consumption) at 200,000,000 pounds, valued at more than $30,000,000 gold.

There is little danger of overproduction and consequent low prices for very many years to come. So far as known, the areas where cacao prospers in the great equatorial zone are small, and the opening and development of suitable regions has altogether failed to keep pace with the demand.

The bibliography of cacao is rather limited, and some of the best publications, [2] being in French, are unavailable to many. The leading English treatise, by Professor Hart, [3] admirable in many respects, deals mainly with conditions in Trinidad, West Indies, and is fatally defective, if not misleading, on the all-important question of pruning.

The life history of the cacao, its botany, chemistry, and statistics are replete with interest, and will, perhaps, be treated in a future paper.

Respectfully,

Wm. S. Lyon, In Charge of Seed and Plant Introduction.

Hon. F. Lamson-Scribner, Chief of the Insular Bureau of Agriculture.

CACAO CULTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES.

INTRODUCTION.

Cacao in cultivation exists nearly everywhere in the Archipelago. I have observed it in several provinces of Luzon, in Mindanao, Joló, Basilan, Panay, and Negros, and have well-verified assurances of its presence in Cebú, Bohol, and Masbate, and it is altogether reasonable to predicate its existence upon all the larger islands anywhere under an elevation of 1,000 or possibly 1,200 meters. Nevertheless, in many localities the condition of the plants is such as not to justify the general extension of cacao cultivation into all regions. The presence of cacao in a given locality is an interesting fact, furnishing a useful guide for investigation and agricultural experimentation, but, as the purpose of this paper is to deal with cacao growing from a commercial standpoint, it is well to state that wherever reference is made to the growth, requirements, habits, or cultural treatment of the plant the commercial aspect is alone considered. As an illustration, attention is called to the statement made elsewhere, that "cacao exacts a minimum temperature of 18°"; although, as is perfectly well known to the writer, its fruit has sometimes matured where the recorded temperatures have fallen as low as 10°. There is much to be learned here by experimentation, for as yet the cultivation is primitive in the extreme, pruning of any kind rudimentary or negative, and "treatment" of the nut altogether unknown.

Elsewhere in cacao-producing countries its cultivation has long passed the experimental stage, and the practices that govern the management of a well-ordered cacao plantation are as clearly defined as those of an orange grove in Florida or a vineyard in California.

In widely scattered localities the close observer will find many young trees that in vigor, color, and general health leave nothing to be desired, but before making final selection for a plantation he should inspect trees of larger growth for evidences of "die back" of the branches. If "die back" is present, superficial examination will generally determine if it is caused by neglect or by the attacks of insects. If not caused by neglect or insect attacks, he may assume that some primary essential to the continued and successful cultivation of the tree is wanting and that the location is unsuited to profitable plantations.

With due regard to these preliminary precautions and a close oversight of every subsequent operation, there is no reason why the growing of cacao may not ultimately become one of the most profitable horticultural enterprises that can engage the attention of planters in this Archipelago.

CLIMATE.

It is customary, when writing of any crop culture, to give precedence to site and soil, but in the case of cacao these considerations are of secondary importance, and while none of the minor operations of planting, pruning, cultivation, and fertilizing may be overlooked, they are all outweighed by the single essential--climate.

In general, a state of atmospheric saturation keeps pace with heavy rainfall, and for that reason we may successfully look for the highest relative humidity upon the eastern shores of the Archipelago, where the rainfall is more uniformly distributed over the whole year, than upon the west.

There are places where the conditions are so peculiar as to challenge especial inquiry. We find on the peninsula of Zamboanga a recorded annual mean rainfall of only 888 mm., and yet cacao (unirrigated) exhibits exceptional thrift and vigor. It is true that this rain is so evenly distributed throughout the year that every drop becomes available, yet the total rainfall is insufficient to account for the very evident and abundant atmospheric humidity indicated by the prosperous conditions of the cacao plantations. The explanation of this phenomenon, as made to me by the Rev. Father Algué, of the Observatory of Manila, is to the effect that strong equatorial ocean currents constantly prevail against southern Mindanao, and that their influence extend north nearly to the tenth degree of latitude. These currents, carrying their moisture-laden atmosphere, would naturally affect the whole of this narrow neck of land and influence as well some of the western coast of Mindanao, and probably place it upon the same favored hygrometric plane as the eastern coast, where the rainfall in some localities amounts to 4 meters a year.

While 2,000 mm. of mean annual rainfall equably distributed is ample to achieve complete success, it seems almost impossible to injure cacao by excessive precipitation. It has been known to successfully tide over inundation of the whole stem up to the first branches for a period covering nearly a month.

Irrigation must be resorted to in cases of deficient or unevenly distributed rainfall, and irrigation is always advantageous whenever there is suspension of rain for a period of more than fifteen days.

Concerning temperatures the best is that with an annual mean of 26° to 28°, with 20° as the mean minimum where any measure of success may be expected. A mean temperature of over 30° is prejudicial to cacao growing.

The last but not least important of the atmospheric phenomena for our consideration are the winds. Cacao loves to "steam and swelter in its own atmosphere" and high winds are inimical, and even refreshing breezes are incompatible, with the greatest success. As there are but few large areas in these Islands that are exempt from one or other of our prevailing winds, the remedies that suggest themselves are: The selection of small sheltered valleys where the prevailing winds are directly cut off by intervening hills or mountains; the plantation of only small groves in the open, and their frequent intersection by the plantation of rapid growing trees; and, best of all, plantings made in forest clearings, where the remaining forested lands will furnish the needed protection.

LOCATION.

It is always desirable to select a site that is approximately level or with only enough fall to assure easy drainage. Such sites may be planted symmetrically and are susceptible to the easiest and most economical application of the many operations connected with a plantation.

Provided the region is well forested and therefore protected from sea breezes, the plantation may be carried very near to the coast, provided the elevation is sufficient to assure the grove immunity from incursions of tide water, which, however much diluted, will speedily cause the death of the plants.

Excavations should be made during the dry season to determine that water does not stand within 1 1/2 meters of the surface, a more essential condition, however, when planting is made "at stake" than when nursery reared trees are planted.

Hillsides, when not too precipitous, frequently offer admirable shelter and desirable soils, but their use entails a rather more complicated system of drainage, to carry away storm water without land washing, and for the ready conversion of the same into irrigating ditches during the dry season. Further, every operation involved must be performed by hand labor, and in the selection of such a site the planter must be largely influenced by the quantity and cost of available labor.

The unexceptionable shelter, the humidity that prevails, and the inexhaustible supply of humus that is generally found in deep forest ravines frequently lead to their planting to cacao where the slope is even as great as 45°. Such plantations, if done upon a considerable commercial scale, involve engineering problems and the careful terracing of each tree, and, except for a dearth of more suitable locations, is a practice that has little to commend it to the practical grower.

THE SOIL.

Other things being equal, preference should be given to a not too tenacious, clayey loam. Selection, in fact, may be quite successfully made through the process of exclusion, and by eliminating all soils of a very light and sandy nature, or clays so tenacious that the surface bakes and cracks while still too wet within 3 or 4 inches of the surface to operate with farm tools. These excluded, still leave a very wide range of silt, clay, and loam soils, most of which are suitable to cacao culture.

Where properly protected from the wind a rocky soil, otherwise good, is not objectionable; in fact, such lands have the advantage of promoting good drainage.

PREPARATION OF THE SOIL.

When the plantation is made upon forest lands, it is necessary to cut and burn all underbrush, together with all timber trees other than those designed for shade. If such shade trees are left (and the advisability of leaving them will be discussed in the proper place), only those of the pulse or bean family are to be recommended. It should also be remembered that, owing in part to the close planting of cacao and in part to the fragility of its wood and its great susceptibility to damage resulting from wounds, subsequent removal of large shade trees from the plantation is attended with difficulty and expense, and the planter should leave few shade trees to the hectare. Clearing the land should be done during the dry season, and refuse burned in situ, thereby conserving to the soil the potash salts so essential to the continued well-being of cacao.

The land should be deeply plowed, and, if possible, subsoiled as well, and then, pending the time of planting the orchard, it may be laid down to corn, cotton, beans, or some forage plant. Preference should be given to "hoed crops," as it is essential to keep the surface in open tilth, as well as to destroy all weeds.

The common practice in most cacao-growing countries is to simply dig deep holes where the trees are to stand, and to give a light working to the rest of the surface just sufficient to produce the intermediate crops. This custom is permissible only on slopes too steep for the successful operation of a side hill plow, or where from lack of draft animals all cultivation has to be done by hand.

Cacao roots deeply, and with relatively few superficial feeders, and the deeper the soil is worked the better.

DRAINAGE.

The number and size of the drains will depend upon the amount of rainfall, the contour of the land, and the natural absorbent character of the soil. In no case should the ditches be less than 1 meter wide and 60 cm. deep, and if loose stones are at hand the sloping sides may be laid with them, which will materially protect them from washing by torrential rains.

These main drains should all be completed prior to planting. Connecting laterals may be opened subsequently, as the necessities of further drainage or future irrigation may demand; shallow furrows will generally answer for these laterals, and as their obliteration will practically follow every time cultivation is given, their construction may be of the cheapest and most temporary nature. Owing to the necessity of main drainage canals and the needful interplanting of shade plants between the rows of cacao, nothing is gained by laying off the land for planting in what is called "two ways," and all subsequent working of the orchard will consequently be in one direction.

THE PLANTATION.

Cacao, relatively to the size of the tree, may be planted very closely. We have stated that it rejoices in a close, moisture-laden atmosphere, and this permits of a closer planting than would be admissible with any other orchard crop.

In very rich soil the strong-growing Forastero variety may be planted 3.7 meters apart each way, or 745 trees to the hectare, and on lighter lands this, or the more dwarf-growing forms of Criollo, may be set as close as 3 meters or rather more than 1,000 trees to the hectare.

The rows should be very carefully lined out in one direction and staked where the young plants are to be set, and then (a year before the final planting) between each row of cacao a line of temporary shelter plants are to be planted. These should be planted in quincunx order, i. e., at the intersecting point of two lines drawn between the diagonal corners of the square made by four cacaos set equidistant each way. This temporary shelter is indispensable for the protection of the young plantation from wind and sun.

The almost universal custom is to plant, for temporary shelter, suckers of fruiting bananas, but throughout the Visayas and in Southern Luzon I think abacá could be advantageously substituted. It is true that, as commonly grown, abacá does not make so rank a growth as some of the plantains, but if given the perfect tillage which the cacao plantation should receive, and moderately rich soils, abacá ought to furnish all necessary shade. This temporary shade may be maintained till the fourth or fifth year, when it is to be grubbed out and the stalks and stumps, which are rich in nitrogen, may be left to decay upon the ground. At present prices, the four or five crops which may be secured from the temporary shelter plants ought to meet the expenses of the entire plantation until it comes into bearing.

In the next step, every fourth tree in the fourth or fifth row of cacao may be omitted and its place filled by a permanent shade tree. The planting of shade trees or "madre de cacao" among the cacao has been observed from time immemorial in all countries where the crop is grown, and the primary purpose of the planting has been for shade alone. Observing that these trees were almost invariably of the pulse or legume family, the writer, in the year 1892, raised the question, in the Proceedings of the Southern California Horticultural Society, that the probable benefits derived were directly attributable to the abundant fertilizing microörganisms developed in the soil by these leguminous plants, rather than the mechanical protection they afforded from the sun's rays.

To Mr. O. F. Cook, of the United States Department of Agriculture, however, belongs the credit of publishing, in 1901, [4] a résumé of his inquiries into the subject of the shades used for both the coffee and the cacao, and which fully confirmed the previous opinions that the main benefit derived from these trees was their influence in maintaining a constant supply of available nitrogen in the soil.

That cacao and its wild congenors naturally seek the shelter of well-shaded forests is well established; but having seen trees in these Islands that were fully exposed at all times showing no evidences of either scald, burn, or sun spot, and in every respect the embodiment of vigor and health, we are fully justified in assuming that here the climatic conditions are such as will permit of taking some reasonable liberties with this time-honored practice and supply needed nitrogen to the soil by the use of cheap and effective "catch crops," such us cowpeas or soy beans.

Here, as elsewhere, an Erythrina, known as "dap-dap," is a favorite shade tree among native planters; the rain tree (Pithecolobium saman) is also occasionally used, and in one instance only have I seen a departure from the use of the Leguminosæ, and that in western Mindanao, there is a shade plantation composed exclusively of Cananga odorata, locally known as ilang-ilang.

While not yet prepared to advocate the total exclusion of all shade trees, I am prepared to recommend a shade tree, if shade trees there must be, whose utility and unquestioned value has singularly escaped notice. The tree in question, the Royal Poinciana (Poinciana regia), embodies all of the virtues that are ascribed to the best of the pulse family, is easily procured, grows freely and rapidly from seed or cutting, furnishes a minimum of shade at all times, and, in these Islands, becomes almost leafless, at the season of maturity of the largest cacao crop when the greatest sun exposure is desired.

The remaining preparatory work consists in the planting of intersecting wind breaks at intervals throughout the grove, and upon sides exposed to winds, or where a natural forest growth does not furnish such a shelter belt. Unless the plantation lies in a particularly protected valley, no plantation, however large in the aggregate, should cover more than 4 or 5 hectares unbroken by at least one row of wind-break trees. Nothing that I know of can approach the mango for this purpose. It will hold in check the fiercest gale and give assurance to the grower that after any storm his cacao crop is still on the trees and not on the ground, a prey to ants, mice, and other vermin.

SELECTION OF VARIETIES.

All the varieties of cacao in general cultivation may be referred to three general types, the Criollo, Forastero, and Calabacillo; and of these, those that I have met in cultivation in the Archipelago are the first and second only. The Criollo is incomparably the finest variety in general use, and may perhaps be most readily distinguished by the inexperienced through the ripe but unfermented seed or almond, as it is often called. This, on breaking, is found to be whitish or yellowish-white, while the seeds of those in which the Forastero or Calabacillo blood predominates are reddish, or, in the case of Forastero, almost violet in color. For flavor, freedom from bitterness, facility in curing, and high commercial value, the Criollo is everywhere conceded to be facile princeps.

On the other hand, in point of yield, vigor, freedom from disease, and compatibility to environment it is not to be compared with the others. Nevertheless, where such perfect conditions exist as are found in parts of Mindanao, I do not hesitate to urge the planting of Criollo. Elsewhere, or wherever the plantation is tentative or the conditions not very well known to the planter, the Forastero is to be recommended. The former is commercially known as "Caracas" and "old red Ceylon," and may be obtained from Ceylon dealers; and the latter, the Forastero, or forms of it which have originated in the island, can be procured from Java.

It seems not unlikely that the true Forastero may have been brought to these Islands from Acapulco, Mexico, two hundred and thirty-two years ago, [5] as it was at that time the dominant kind grown in southeastern Mexico, and, if so, the place where the pure type would most likely be found in these Islands would be in the Camarines, Southern Luzon. Aside from the seed characters already given, Forastero is recognized by its larger, thicker, more abundant, and rather more abruptly pointed fruit than Criollo, and its coarse leaves which are from 22 to 50 cm. long by 7 to 13 cm. wide, dimensions nearly double those reached by the Criollo or Calabacillo varieties.

PLANTING.

Planting may be done "at stake" or from the nursery. For the unskilled or inexperienced planter, who has means at hand to defray the greater cost, planting "at stake" is perhaps to be recommended. This is no more than the dropping and lightly covering, during the rainy season, of three or four seeds at the stake where the plant is to stand, protecting the spot with a bit of banana leaf, left till the seeds have sprouted, and subsequently pulling out all but the one strongest and thriftiest plant.

The contingencies to be met by this system are many. The enemies of the cacao seed are legion. Drought, birds, worms, ants, beetles, mice, and rats will all contribute their quota to prevent a good "stand" and entail the necessity of repeated plantings. Success by planting "at stake" is so doubtful that it is rarely followed by experienced planters.

The consequent alternative lies in rearing seedlings in seed beds that are under immediate control, and, when the plants are of sufficient size, in transplanting them to their proper sites in the orchard. In view of the remarkable short-lived vitality of the cacao seed, it is in every way advisable that the untrained grower procure his plants from professional nurserymen, or, if this resource is lacking, that he import the young plants in Wardian cases from some of the many firms abroad who make a specialty of preparing them for foreign markets.

Both of these expedients failing, then it is advised that the seeds be sown one by one in small pots, or, if these are not procurable, in small bamboo tubes, and, for the sake of uniform moisture, plunge them to their rims in any free, light soil in a well-shaded easily protected spot where they may be carefully watered. In three to six months (according to growth) the tube with its included plant may be planted in the open field, when the former will speedily decompose and the growth of the cacao proceed without check or injury.