and Magazine of the Ceylon A gricultural Society, 



THE COCONUT l»ALW STEW DISEASE 

 AND ITS TREATMENT i 



Action of the Pests Board: 75,000 Notices 

 Reqoiued fok Colombo. 



March 10th. 

 Sir, — The Low-country Products Association 

 has begun well, in the practical step which it 

 took to inform its members, and all interested 

 in the Coconut Industry -and how few in the 

 country aro not '?— of the danger which threa- 

 tens the industry. And it is atao to be con- 

 gratulated on tlie measure of success winch 

 attended its efforts last Friday. The informa- 

 tion, which Mr Petch supplied in his lecture, 

 was most valuable; and although much of it 

 had previously seen the light, in letters and 

 in imperfectly reported demonstrations, it is not 

 easy to overdo instruction on a vital matter. 

 Through the willing help of the Press, every- 

 thing that science, so far, has ascertained 

 about the disease, and can recommend in its 

 treatment, is now before the public. And more, 

 the questions with which Mr Petch was plied, 

 while they helped to elicit much useful and 

 definite information, supplementary to what 

 the lecture contained, also helped to dispel 

 some delusions and superstitions to which 

 some people had been clinging. Surgery is not a 

 popular science ; and the owners of coconut 

 estates and gardens would much sooner 

 believe that the disease could be overcome 

 medically — through applications to the roots 

 or to the bark— than by excision. But 

 it is occasionally necessary to sacrifice a 

 limb to save human life; and Mr Petch 

 was very clear that nothing that the tree could 

 absorb by the roots could possibly arrest the 

 growth of the fungus within the bark, and no 

 outward application to the bark could reach the 

 fungus within the wood. But there is such a 

 thing as conservative surgery— conservative, not 

 only in the sense of taving life, but in the 

 sense of saving the affected part or limb. 

 The suggestion that carbolic acid might 

 arrest the growth of the fungus seemed to 

 find some favour with .vlr Petch; and although 

 its application cannot wholly dispense with 

 excision, it is for intelligent land-owners 

 and Superintendents to test the efficacy 

 of the acid by painting with it the 

 wood, after cutting out only as much as 

 is decayed. At present all the discoloured 

 wood is cut out, as there might be a thread 

 of the disease running within. Would carbolic 

 acid or the vapour or fumes of some other 

 substance reach the fungus and arrest its 

 growth? The importance of an answer to this 

 question cannot be exaggerated, not merely as 

 a means of saving time and money in treatment. 

 The immense weight of the head of a coconut 

 tree is well-known ; cultivation adds to its 

 weight ; and the etfect of cutting out two or 

 three inches of the stem, especially above its 

 middle, is to weaken its powers of resistance 

 against wind considerably. I have had more 

 than one healthy clean-stemmed tree snapped in 

 the middle by a high wind. The risks of 

 such mishaps have been greatly increased 

 since tho cutting out of the stem has had 



to be resorted to. I feel sure Mr. Petch 

 will carefully investigate the possibility of 

 conservative treatment since the matter was 

 brought to his notice last Friday. I am trying 

 it myself here, but the practical planter can 

 be materially aided by scientists, especially 

 through the suggestion of suitable substances 

 for experiments. Pending these experiments, 

 the heroic treatment must go on ; and it is 

 there that the coconut industry is almost wholly 

 dependent on the Government. The more in- 

 telligent classes may be trusted to act from 

 sell-interest at least —though not a few events 

 of them aro too old-lashionod or selfsullicient 

 to accept Western ideas ; but thero is 

 the vast mass of the peasantry. It is not only 

 that their inaction must seriously jeopardise 

 the interests of their progressive neighbours ; 

 but they themselves stand to be ruined. The 

 Government cannot possibly allow nine-tenths 

 of the population to be impoverished, and re- 

 duced to want, by the destruction of one of their 

 main sources of wealth and even of subsistence. 

 Only those who live among the people can 

 form any conception of the dependence of the 

 Siuhalese villager on his coconut trees ; and 

 the Tamil or Moorish villager is scarcely less 

 dependent on this most useful palm. The 

 Government has proclaimed the stem disease 

 a pest, but the villager has as much to do 

 with the Gazette as with the man in the moon. 

 'J he Plant Pests Board for theWestern Province 

 had a long sitting at the Colombo Kachcheri 

 on tho 3rd instant, under the presidency of 

 Mr Booth, and decided to have notices printed 

 in Sinhalese, containing the Government notifi- 

 cation and the suggested treatment with a 

 warning that neglect to carry out the treatment 

 is an offence punishable by fine and imprisonment 

 and will result in the treatment being carried 

 out at the cost of the occupier or land-owner 

 by special officers. The number of householders 

 in the Colombo district being 75,000, that 

 number of notices has to be printed. Each 

 village Headman is to be required to write the 

 name of each owner of coconut trees in the 

 village on a notice and serve it on him and make 

 a return to the Government Agent. The Govern- 

 ment is to be asked to hurry on the printing — 

 official formalities take time; and meanwhile all 

 village Headmen are to be asked to make known 

 to the villagers beforehand what is expected 

 of them. 



The mention of these formalities and require- 

 ments justifies a short reference to the personal 

 aspect of Mr Petch's lecture. There can be no 

 doubt that there has been some wild and heated 

 writing about the neglect of the Peradeniya 

 authorities; and Mr Petch's irritation is, to 

 some extent, natural. But the precedent of 

 delays in the Godaveri delta is not one we should 

 care to follow here. We have no explanation 

 of the causes of delay there ; and Ceylon is a 

 much smaller place than India. A letter or 

 an article in the Tropical Agriculturist is not 

 notice to the Ceylon public. If Mr Petch had 

 no idea in December, 1906, of the seriousness 

 of the stem disease, the unscientific planter 

 could scarcely be expected to have realised its 

 seriousness. If he did regard its seriousness 

 aright, should he not have pressed on the 

 Government, the gravity of tho situation ? Even 



