264 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



&c., on estates, remunerative rotation crops 

 might be grown on badly infected areas for a 

 year or two before replanting, if only to work 

 out and eliminate the disease by reducing the 

 richness of the land. Careful cultivation also 

 helps, and possibly, urges Stockdale, green 

 dressings of leguminous plants might be 

 profitably grown and ploughed in. 



The cultivation of land under coco-nuts is 

 as a rule neglected, and instances have been 

 noticed where the yields of nuts on old planta- 

 tions gradually diminish in size, year by year. 

 Better cultivation and drainage would both 

 offer more favourable opportunities for the 

 coco-nut palm, and be of considerable value 

 in dealing with root disease, especially in 

 wet areas with soil of a clayey nature, and 

 would afford a better chance for the palm to 

 make use of plant food, either from the soil or 

 when applying manures. Above all feed up the 

 trees. Stockdale (p. 370 of his report) quotes 

 the case of a planter in Trinidad (W.I.) who 

 obtained, through judicious applications of 

 manures, 120,000 nuts per year from an area 

 that gave only 40,000 nuts per year five years 

 previously. This emphasizes the fact that the 

 coco-nut readily responds, in some soils at least, 

 to liberal applications of manure; and there is no 

 denying the fact with all diseases, but especially 

 with root disease, that by encouraging healthy 

 growth and increasing the vigour of the trees, 

 they will be able to better withstand fungous 

 attacks. 



