242 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



them, and the wound should then be dressed 

 with tar Rorer says hot tar to prevent the 

 attack of beetles. 



This disease is evidently more prevalent in 

 Ceylon, for we have cut many articles and 

 notices of it from the Colombo papers, whereas 

 we seldom hear of it in Trinidad. In the 

 East, however, Fetch, among others, has 

 studied it carefully, and Rorer quotes him in 

 his report, but even then devotes only twenty 

 lines to the question of stem-disease, so 

 evidently he did not attach much importance 

 to it. 



The disease, according to Fetch, was first 

 brought before the notice of the Department 

 of Agriculture in Ceylon in 1903, and from 

 1906 onward general attention seems to have 

 been devoted to it, as at that time, especially 

 in the district attached to the Katana Agricul- 

 tural Society, the disease showed signs of 

 giving trouble. In reporting this to head- 

 < quarters, that Society described it as consist- 

 ing of: 



(1) Oozing out of the trunk of a rusty or 

 dark-coloured liquid. 



(2) Followed by wounds on the trunk. 



(3) In about two or three years the skin of 

 the trunk drops out. 



(4) The top portion of the tree gradually 

 becomes thin. 



(5) To about the depth of 3 ft. or 4 ft. the 

 roots wither sometimes wholly, sometimes 



. partly. 



