PREVENTIVE MEASURES FOR ROOT DISEASE 111 



soil removed from their principal roots and the diseased 

 portions removed and burned. The holes made around 

 the trees by the removal cf soil should be given a dressing 

 of about 5 lb. of lime, and the soil should then be replaced. 

 Where the root area has been considerably reduced the 

 branches should 'be heavily pruned to prevent the tree 

 suffering from excessive transpiration. 



He further advises that the whole of the isolated 

 area should then be properly forked and a dressing of 

 quicklime broad-casted at the rate of about 10 lb. per 

 tree. Later, applications of pen manure and mulchings 

 should be given, and in the succeeding year a di'essing of 

 lime at the rate of 3 or 4 lb. per tree should be given. It 

 is reported that in Dominica and St. Lucia, where planters 

 have adopted remedial measures similar to those pre- 

 viously described, considerable numbers of trees have 

 been saved. It has been amply demonstrated that when 

 such measures have been adopted during the early stages 

 of the attack the disease may be successfully treated. 



Pink Disease, Corticium lilaco-fuscum. — Cocoa trees 

 attacked by this disease have been observed in Dominica 

 and St. Lucia, but up to the present no serious damage 

 has been attributed to it. 



Young branches frequently become incrusted with 

 the pink fungal threads of this parasite ; these force their 

 way into the bark tissues and may even penetrate the 

 wood of young growths. As a result the bark cracks 

 and peels off, but branches are rarely completely killed 

 by the disease. 



It is, however, necessary to keep the disease in check, 

 as the fissures which it causes in the bark afford convenient 

 infection areas for the spores of the various wound fungi. 

 Badly infected branches, or any which may be kUled by 

 the disease, should be pruned off and burned. Stockdale 

 is of opinion that the fungus may be destroyed by washing 

 affected branches with a lime-sulphur wash. The latter 

 may be made by mixing 7i lb. of slaked lime with 2^ lb. 

 of flowers of sulphur in 10 gallons of water, and boiling 

 this mixture until it turns an orange colour. 



Affected branches should be well rubbed with the 

 mixture when it has become cold. 



Thread Blights. — The branches and leaves of cocoa 

 trees in several of the West Indian islands have been found 



