2C)(} E. J. BUTLEK. 



The data obtained as a result of the work in the Coringa Firkn 

 of Cocanada Taluk in three months, from December 1906 to March 

 1907, are given below. The results in the other firkas were compar- 

 able. In Coringa Firka there are 35 Government villages of which 

 about 20 reported the presence of the disease. During the first 

 three months of the operations about 12,000 palms were cut and 

 about 45,000 treated with Bordeaux mixture. The cost, including 

 pay of supervising establishment, wages of coolies and cost of mat- 

 erials but excluding pay of the Mycological Assistant, was about 

 lis. 900 (£60). It was estimated that the cost of treating 

 the palms with Bordeaux mixture, including all charges except 

 supervision, was one pie ( j^^ anna) per tree, which accounts for 

 Rs. 234-6, leaving Rs. 665-10 for cost of cutting 12,000 palms 

 and supervising charges. This gives about '9 anna per tree cut. 



In reviewing these trial operations it was evident in the first 

 place that no permanent good could be expected from them,' owing 

 to their small scale and the continued inflow of infective matter 

 from the surrounding untreated area. They, however, gave very 

 valuable indications of the practical difficulties to be encountered, 

 afforded a reliable basis for estimating the cost of any further ex- 

 tension of the work and showed several directions in which improve- 

 ment could be effected. 



The whole of a firka was found to be too large an area for one 

 party to work through. Since at the time of first treating a village, 

 a number of palms were certain to have been infected so recently as 

 to show no outward symptoms and were sure to remain undetected, 

 it was evident that subsequent visits would have to be made to dis- 

 cover and destroy these when they developed sufficiently to be visi- 

 ble from the ground. As already pointed out the trees are not dan- 

 o-erous to their neighbours in these early stages, and one or two re- 

 turn visits of this nature would, it was anticipated, be sufficient 

 to account for all. The parties required for these secondary opera- 

 tions, and the time taken in each village in carrying them out, would 



1 The writer was not consulted when they were planned. 



