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THE COCOANUT PALM. 



made lest rats, beetles, or worms have made nests upon the head, or 

 bored into the cabbage heart of the palm, and this often. Some 

 planters sprinkle ashes and salt about the spike shoots to keep insects 

 away. The dried fronds, old spathes, fruit and blossom stalks, and 

 ragged fibres should be removed at stated periods of perhaps a month, 

 or as often as the nuts may hereafter be gathered. The application 

 of salt and ashes to the tree tops is usual at least in March and 

 October to keep off the swarms of insects, particularly red ants, which 

 live upon the juices of the tree and render them fruitless. 



The cocoanut tree is at all periods of its life endangered by the 

 attacks of enemies. While one beetle bores into the tender shooting 

 leaf, and lays its eggs there, to be hatched into grubs which will eat 

 their way in all directions, another will bore round holes into the 

 stem itself and live there ; rats climb up and make their nests in the 

 hollows of the branching fronds, and eat the cabbage itself or feast 

 upon the young kernels. The common flying fox, or rousette, 

 (Pteropus) gnaws round holes through husk and shell of the mature 

 cocoanut, and will attack the young cocoanut, biting away large pieces 

 from the tender part under the capsule, and, burying its head in the 

 nut, will revel in the sweets within. The flying squirrel (Fteromys) 

 will also make his abode in some cocoanut topes near woods or forest 

 trees, and at nightfall attack the nuts, and two or three dozen may be 

 picked up every morning with the marks of his teeth upon them, or 

 partly destroyed. The common striped palm squirrel is also some- 

 times found destroying the nuts and blossom — while red ants and 

 parrots attack the blossoms only. The most effective method of 

 obviating these evils is to shoot the flying foxes and squirrels by 

 moonlight, to use arsenic with grated cocoanut pulp, or pounded glass, 

 oil, and black sugar mixed in cocoanut shells, left in the tree tops. In 

 one plantation of about 15,000 trees, six to seven hundred rats were 

 taken month after month in trap falls. The red ant's nest should be 

 sought out and destroyed. A large wasp will attack the very small 

 nut, taking it for the material of its nest. Besides using ashes 

 sprinkled often with salt between the fronds, some natives place 

 onions, garlic, or even asafoetida and fenugreek there, thinking the 

 scent will keep off beetles and grubs. When the spathe is cut for 

 drawing toddy, the frequent visits of the men will tend to keep other 

 intruders away, but the smell of the toddy is said to invite rats and 

 wild cats. If any of the extracted juice falls from the receiving 

 vessel on to the young spike or leaf, it is said to cause it to decay by 

 attracting insects to bore into the fronds. Grass should be kept 

 down by feeding off with goats and cattle. In marshy lands cattle 

 are apt to make deep tracks and break down the margins of the 

 terraces, hence goats or calves only are allowed ; and the undergrowth 

 is to be annually cut for the repairs of paddy fields, and this is 

 another source of profit. 



Planting jack, mango, tamarind, punna, coffee, and other trees, as is 

 often done, close to the cocoanut palm, is thought to be detrimental, 

 as is also allowing the pepper and betel vines to climb the tree, or even 

 the sowing of maize, gram, or any of the dry pulses under the shade. 



But areca-nut trees may be planted and all other palms, and the 



