42 COCONUT CULTIVATION 



has prepared a draft enactment to provide for 

 the protection of trees, plants, and cultivated 

 products from disease and pests. The objects 

 and reasons are as follow : This draft aims at 

 providing statutory means for combating the 

 introduction and spread of pests injurious to 

 cultivation. It is thought that these matters 

 do not receive from all cultivators the attention 

 necessary to protect so far as possible the crops 

 of themselves and their neighbours from pre- 

 ventible disease, and that in the interests of 

 cultivators it is desirable that power be created 

 to make inspections, and to take or cause to be 

 taken such measures as may, in the opinion of 

 persons competent to judge, be expedient for 

 securing the health of cultivated products and 

 for recording and immediately dealing with out- 

 breaks of disease. In this draft are included, 

 as a matter of convenience, provisions corre- 

 sponding to those of the Coconut Trees Preserva- 

 tion Enactments, 1898, which it is proposed 

 to repeal (August, 1913). 



Disease. There are other dangers to which 

 the palm is liable, such as root disease, leaf 

 disease, bud rot, but these would appear to be 

 more prevalent in the West Indies than in 

 Malaya. A watchful planter, however, ought 

 soon to detect disease and have it diagnosed 

 by a mycologist. There are a number of help- 

 ful publications which should form part of a 

 plantation library. 



