54 COCONUT PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



Pests. Measures for Treatment. 



III. — Shot-hole borer (Xyle- Prohibition of removal of tea plants 

 horus fornicating (other than leaf for manufacture 



and tea seed) or their reception by 

 any estate within the prescribed 

 area. (April 1912.) 



IV.— The fungus Phytoph- Collection and destruction by burning 

 thorafaberi, where it is and burying with lime of diseased 



found to exist in Hevea fruits. Excision and destruction 



by burning of diseased bark (cortex.) 



(March 1913.) 



V- — The species of Phytoph- Collection and destruction by fire of 

 thora, which causes nut all diseased fruits and fallen leaves 



and leaf fall of coconuts in affected fields, and destruction 



by fire of fallen or dead coconut 

 trees. (November, 191 7.) 



THE ERADICATION OF ILLUK. 



The '"Illuk" of Ceylon is the lalang of the Straits (Jmperata 

 a/rwndinacea.) 



In a paper read before the Ceylon Agricultural Society in 1906, 

 The Hon'ble Mr. John Ferguson discussed this subject very fully. 



Mr. Ferguson refers to a method adopted by Tobacco Planters in 

 Sumatra as described by Mr. Frederick Ponsforth : — 



The only efficacious remedy for getting rid of this pest was thought 

 to be to dig and turn the soil completely over 2 to 3 ft. and then to 

 pick out and destroy every particle of the plant by burning. This is, 

 of course, an expensive method and, though effectual, can only be re- 

 sorted to in exceptional cases. 



Moreover the planters observed that the Malay and other native 

 settlers had a fairly efficacious and comparatively easy method of tem- 

 porarily getting the better of any lalang surrounding their houses or 

 which grew in their plantations. They did this by the simple process 

 of pressing the lalang flat down on the ground whilst it was in full 

 growth, with the aid of a bamboo pole upon which one or two men 

 kneeled. They thereby caused the lalang to smother itself and this 

 retarded its growth for a few months. I have witnessed this time 

 after time in my wanderings among the Malay villages. The parent 

 lalang grass flattened down in this way, died and rotted, and caused 

 the land to be temporarily shaded from the sun, so that the new lalang 

 shoots sprouting from the parent stock became too weak and frail to 



