60 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



Diplodia spores can germinate after at least three 

 months. 



First and foremost among measures tending to prevent the 

 entrance of the fungus into the palm is the doing away with 

 all unnecessary wounding of the trees, maliciously, thoughtlessly, 

 or otherwise. The cutting down of dead leaves is uncalled for. 

 Nature will bring them down in due time, and no wound 

 will result. Whenever a wound is inflicted it should at once 

 be dressed with tar or some other aseptic preparation, and 

 such dressing should be frequently inspected and renewed when 

 required. 



Fredholm advised dressing the wounds made in 

 cutting the nuts. Commenting on this, Mr. W. Greig 

 of the Cedros estate says : 



All practical planters, I am sure, will realize the impossibility 

 of having this done thoroughly, and unless it is done thoroughly, 

 it is worse than useless, so I suggest that picking be stopped 

 on estates suffering from this disease, and that the palms be 

 allowed to drop their nuts. This would necessitate a little 

 more expense in keeping undergrowth down, and in collecting 

 nuts, but the nuts would be of better quality than picked nuts. 



Where the nuts are used for copra-manufacture or, 

 as is general practice in Trinidad, for oil-making on the 

 plantation, the product is likely to show a very prompt 

 increase in value, as a result of leaving the nuts to fall 

 off themselves. 



The full account which has just been given of 

 observations and conclusions of different men at 

 different places in the West Indies is justified by the 

 tremendous importance of the subject, and by the 

 discrepancies between the different accounts. While 

 all of these reports have been made within the last 

 seven years the most comprehensive treatment by 

 Johnston is later than any of those already quoted, and 

 a brief but pithy statement by Eorer has been published 

 since the appearance of Johnston's work. Johnston's 

 most signal contribution to the understanding of the 

 subject is the absolute demonstration that bud rot can 

 be produced by Bacillus coli. This has been established 



