252 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



manuring again should be tried, because it 

 strengthens the plant and causes vigorous 

 growth, followed up by cultivation to give the 

 tree every chance of developing itself. On 

 the latter point Stockdale is very emphatic, 

 when he urges planters to thoroughly culti- 

 vate and drain their lands ; and as far back 

 as 1889 Mr. Drieberg, in a report he drew up 

 in Ceylon on the matter, summed up as follows : 

 " The consensus of opinion, and notably that 

 based on analysis of soil, tends to prove that 

 those areas where the disease prevails to such 

 an extent as to disquiet the minds of proprietors 

 and lessees, are suffering from an impoverished 

 condition of the sojl as far as the successful 

 growth of coco-nuts is concerned ; and to cope 

 with the disease the soil must be by every 

 means raised to the requisite standard of 

 fertility." 1 



ROOT DISEASE. 



According to Mr. Stockdale, reporting on 

 his investigations in the West Indies, three 

 diseases, or at least three principal diseases, 

 that occur in the West Indies are 2 : 



(i) Root Disease, investigated in Trinidad, 

 and from specimens received from British 

 Guiana, possibly also in Jamaica. A similar 

 disease is described in Travancore. 



1 Ferguson's "Coco-nut Planter's Manual," p. 37. 



2 " Fungous Diseases of Coco-nuts," West Indian 

 Bulletin, vol. ix, No. 4, pp. 361-381. 



