Diseases 2 1 7 



Care should also be taken to avoid as far as 

 possible any contact with healthy trees, as the 

 fungi are in such cases apt to spread further. 

 Their germs may be carried quite a distance 

 if care is not taken to prevent it ; diseased 

 portions therefore must on no account be 

 dragged on the ground, as doing so would 

 spread the disease on all sides. Of other 

 troubles, wild pigs, where they abound, and 

 where large, dense, adjacent forest areas give 

 them secure retreat after their nocturnal raids, 

 are to be dreaded and guarded against, as 

 they are capable of working widespread de- 

 struction in a single night. They can destroy 

 whole nurseries of young plants once they get 

 access to the plantation. 



The remedy is to hunt them incessantly and 

 relentlessly with hound and gun, and to make 

 strong fences which they cannot break through 

 or crawl under. Laying poison in the shape 

 of yams or rice, &c., impregnated with strych- 

 nine or arsenic, will only serve once or twice, 

 and is also to be deprecated because it might 

 reach domestic animals, and even children. 



Rats can become a serious nuisance in certain 

 seasons and localities. In the islands of the 

 Indian Ocean, the Seychelles, the Maldives, 

 Madagascar, &c., they have become a perfect 

 plague and do enormous damage each year. 

 They principally attack the embryo fruits, 

 climbing the trees for this purpose. 



In order to prevent them from doing this, 



