236 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



be averted, for as the stove, charcoal-burner,, 

 or whatever else you choose to call the appa- 

 ratus, can successfully make charcoal from 

 green wood, it certainly should be able to 

 cremate even the most rotten coco-nut bud 

 sufficiently to render it harmless. Being made 

 in several sizes, some as wide as 8 ft. across, 

 the infected parts can easily be packed 

 away inside it, carefully intermixed with dry 

 leaves, trash, wood, &c., to start the fire. The 

 filling is done both through the door at the 

 side, or from the top, the lid being removable. 

 When full it is lighted from the centre vent in 

 the lid, under which some dry litter must be 

 placed for that purpose. Presently, fumes and 

 smoke should issue from the top and bottom, 

 and the burner, now well alight, must be left 

 for about thirty hours (i.e., two days and a 

 night, or two nights and one day) if a complete 

 carbonization is desired, but probably a few 

 hours will prove sufficient to render the con- 

 tents perfectly harmless for removal. As the 

 apparatus has never been used for anything 

 but ordinary charcoal-making, we cannot say 

 more, but certainly feel that a trial might be 

 made with an apparatus like the one shown, 

 especially as Stockdale, in his report of October, 

 1906, on " Coco-nut Palm Disease in Trinidad,'* 

 tells us : " When the trees contain a large 

 amount of sap, and still bear a fair number of 

 green leaves, it is almost impossible to burn 

 them, unless a number are collected and burnt 



