and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



REPORT ON COCONUT PALM 

 DISEASE IN TRAVANCORE. 



By Dr. B. J. Butlek, Imperial 

 Mycologist. 



The southern half of the coconut forest of the 

 Malabar coast lies in Travancore. Viewed from the 

 sea near Alleppey it forms a continuous belt in 

 which the coast villages are entirely buried. The 

 coast line here consists of a sandy btach, passing 

 inland into a high soil with a large proportion of 

 sand until the shore of the Vembanad lake, a 

 large lagoon some forty miles long, opening to 

 the sea at Cochin, is reached. This lake forms 

 part of the continuous system of navigable 

 lagoons and channels, part natural part arti- 

 ficial, which extends parallel to the sea for a 

 distance of over two hundred miles northwards 

 from Trivandrura. These are for the most part 

 narrow and tortuous but open out here and 

 there into expanses of shallow water, the whole 

 forming an unrivalled chain of " back- 

 water '' communication through the heart 

 of the coconut area. Around the 

 lagoons and backwaters the soil is stiffer 

 than along the coast, largely formed 

 of silt taken from the bed of the water-channels 

 and employed to build up small islands and 

 banks, raised a foot or two above the water level, 

 crowded with coconuts and deneely populated. 

 In parts of the east and south-east of the Vem- 

 banad lake low ridges of laterite are found. In 

 this tract between the sea and the backwaters 

 and around the latter except on the laterite, 

 the best coconut lands of North Travancore 

 are found. Practically only two types of 



CULTIVATION ARE SEEN IN THIS AREA. 



By far the larger portion consists of coconut 

 gardens, with areca, jack, plantain and other 

 garden produce as subsidiary crops. In the 

 shallow stretches of water, broken by coconut 

 topes, which border the lake and open out of 

 the backwaters, a peculiar type of paddy culti- 

 vation is seen. These stretches are enclosed 

 by mud and wattle bunds buit from the bed of 

 the lake to near the surface of the water in the 

 monsoon, and the surplus water is pumped out 

 by steam or hand power until a crop of paddy 

 can be put in. The pumping is done after 

 the north-east monsoon, the crop planted 

 about December and harvested just before 

 the inundation of the following south-west 

 monsoon. Inland from the backwaters is a 

 tract of country extending to the foot of the 

 Cardamom hills, which form the western half 

 of the State. This is broken by numerous 

 rivers aud streams descending from the hills 

 to empty into the backwaters aud ultimately 

 the sea. It is not flat, like the coast belt, 

 but diversified by low hills and ridges, parti- 

 cularly towards the higher range. Coconut 

 cultivation follows the rivers and streams, the 

 palms being found not only in the valleys but 

 also on the hiM sides. It is possible there- 

 fore to distinguish three more or less distinct 

 zones of coconut cultivation : the littoral, with 

 sandy soil not much raised above the water 

 level and comprising the largest part of the 

 • area under coconuts : the part adjoining the 



backwaters, equally low-lying but with soil 

 largely formed of salt : the sub-montane, ex- 

 tending inland to the loot of the hills with 

 a deep led or blackish alluvium along the 

 valleys and a shallow, generally poor, laterite 

 on the hills. The palm thrives best on the 

 pand of the coast and the sandy loam around 

 the backwaters "within ten or fifteen miles of 

 the sea. Towards the hills it is less pro- 

 ductive ; fine gardens occur in the valleys but 

 those on the hill sides are poor. The climate 

 of Travancore is remarkably equable all the 

 year round. The mean day temperature of 

 the year is about 80° F., the mean maximum 

 of the year about 87'5° F., and the mean 

 minimum about 75° F. Higher readings 

 than 90° are rare, and lower than 70* 

 still rarer. The rainfall shows 



TWO WELL-MARKED PROGRESSIVE INOREASE8 



from south to north and from the coast-line to 

 the hills. Thus it increases from an annual 

 average of 30 inches near Cape Comorin in the 

 south to 114 inches at Alleppey and 117 inches 

 at Parur in the north of the State, and again 

 from 114 inches at Alleppey on the coast to 

 198 at Peerraade in the hills. There is no lone 

 dry period, rain falling as a rule every month 

 throughout theyear, though December to March 

 is comparatively Cry. January is the driest 

 mouth. Precipitation increases until the ar- 

 rival of the south-west monsoon. June is the 

 month of maximum rainfall. Then there is a 

 diminution again until October when, with the 

 north east monsoon, a secondary maximum is 

 reached. As the coconut is said everywhere 

 to require a warm and moist climate with an 

 equable temperature, it will be evident that 

 Travancore fulfils its olimatic requirements 

 perfectly. It is said also to flourish best suffi- 

 ciently near the sea to allow of the sub-soil 

 being infiltrated with sea water. Different 

 analyses in India, Ceylon and the Philippine 

 Islands seem to show that a heavy crop removes 

 over a hundred pounds of potash salts and 

 over sixty of sodium chloride (common salt) 

 per acre per annum, and may explain this pre- 

 ference. Be that as it may, a large proportion 

 of the best Travancore coconuts are in soil 

 which is infiltrated with salt or brackish water. 

 That this salt is a necessity to the tree is evi- 

 dently believed in many coconut growing 

 countries where, as in Travancore, an applica- 

 tion of salt to its roots is frequently made. 

 Its requirements in potash and magnesium are 

 probably supplied in part by infiltrated sea-water 

 in low-lying littoral or backwater soils. Else- 

 where they are furnished by dressings of wood 

 aud leaf ashes (largely of the coconut itself) 

 applied around the base of the tree. Beyond 

 this a limited amount of manuring with coco- 

 Dut or other poonac, cattle manure, fash manure 

 and occasionally bones is practised. 



THE PALM RESPONDS REMARKABLY QUICKLY TO 

 FERTILIZERS 



and there is certainly much room for improve- 

 ment in indigenous practices in this respect. The 

 prosperity of Travancore — admittedly great — 

 depends primarily on its coconut industry. It 

 is difficult to ascertain the exact area under 

 the palm, combined as it is with every other 

 sort of cultivation except in the dry area of 



