128 SPICES 



CHAP. 



beetles having destroyed the subterranean portion, soon 

 dies. The small perforations in the bark (where the adult 

 beetles had escaped) should have shown the planters 

 that small beetles of the Scolytid group were at work in 

 the tree, and the only question then was, were the 

 beetles destroying the living tree or only attacking dead 

 portions. This point is settled by finding the beetles 

 in the still-living bark, and especially in the twigs of 

 the living branches. 



There was, unfortunately, no entomologist in the 

 colony at that time, or the cause of the plague would 

 soon have been detected and steps taken to remedy it. 

 As it was, to quote Collingwood again : 



The planters abandoned the plantations in disgust in many 

 cases where there were still healthy trees, and the land reverted 

 to Government. In other cases, where expensive bungalows 

 had been built upon the estate, they were sold for a small pro- 

 portion of the sums expended in building them, since they were, 

 as a rule, too far from town to command any competition, 

 and ceased to be conveniently situated. Many planters, both 

 English and Chinese, whose whole estates were invested in 

 nutmeg plantations, were thus reduced to ruin and absolutely 

 penniless, and distress and disappointment everywhere pre- 

 vailed. 



Many of the trees which were abandoned, and round 

 which a thick jungle undergrowth had sprung up, re- 

 covered, which Collingwood attributed to their being no 

 longer manured, for it seems that at the time an idea 

 arose in the minds of the planters that the disease was 

 caused by over-manuring the plants, and they even went 

 so far as to condemn any manuring of the plants at all 

 as fatal to the tree. But this recovery was what might 

 have been expected. The beetles apparently dislike 

 shade, as may be seen from the fact that they were 

 found in the sunniest side of the trees in greatest 

 abundance, and furthermore, the isolation of the remain- 

 ing trees by secondary scrub prevented the beetles from 

 finding their way from one tree to another. There are 

 still in old gardens in Singapore a few of the old nutmeg 

 trees which seem to be the relics of the plantations of 



