DISEASES OF THE DATE PALM. 131 



(b) After the palm leaves have passed the fresh green stage 

 and are no longer capable of carrying on their functions 

 of assimilation, transpiration, etc., with vigor, they are an 

 encumbrance to the plant and the thorny mass of these old 

 leaves forms a serious obstacle to attending properly to the 

 fruit bunches. 



(c) The leaving of the old leaves on the plant does not 

 prevent the attack of the pest, as trees left absolutely unpruned 

 are attacked. I recently cut down such a tree very badly affected 

 at Mahmud Kot in Muzaffargarh district and could find many 

 others among the unpruned male palms there. Unless the people 

 want the leaves for any purpose the male plants in the Punjab 

 are frequently left unpruned, as pollination is left entirely to 

 the wind, and the people have usually no need to get at the 

 male flower bunches. 



The weevil is attracted by the tissues exposed when leaves 

 are pruned from a tree and is suspected of laying its eggs in 

 these tissues ; but as the number of leaves removed from a tree 

 in a year is very small it would be quite practicable to tar the 

 cut surfaces left exposed, or treat them with other material 

 which would keep the insects from attacking these parts. The 

 cost of the tar required would be insignificant. All other wounds 

 and places where soft tissue is exposed,- should be tarred. When 

 a tree slightly attacked is noticed, attempts should be made 

 immediately to open the affected part as far as possible without 

 unduly harming the tree, so as to get at, and kill the grubs ; the 

 wound then to be treated as above. If left untreated an attacked 

 tree will certainly be severely harmed and will probably die. 

 Cut stumps or useless parts of date trees left lying about 

 should be destroyed. Palm stumps and soft palm tissues are 

 said to be used in the West Indies to attract and trap a 

 similar weevil there, the stumps, etc., being visited in the 

 morning and the weevils collected and killed. It is [recom- 

 mended that where the Ehinoceros beetle is found, the red weevil 

 should be prevented from getting into the hole bored by the 

 former beetle, by plugging these holes with dry grass or some 



