and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



75 



It was evident that the 



EFFECT OF THE DISEASE 



was not so great as was formerly stated. He did 

 not think it could now be said that the tree 

 died in three or four, or even five years. 



Mr. Petch then produced some photographs, 

 which were handed round for inspection. 



The first, he said, was of a tree which had 

 three bleeding spots about half-way up. It had 

 been in that condition for two years. It had 

 over a dozen branches of nuts and the crop was 

 as good as ever. It stood the gale of last week. 



Another was of a tree which was inoculated 

 in September, 1907— the tree, therefore, being 

 about 20 months from inoculation. The bleeding 

 spot on that was not more than two inches 

 broad and not more than half-an-inch wide, in 

 fact he had to mark it with a card at the base 

 of the stem or it would not have been seen in 

 the photograph. The result on the crop had 

 not been shown at all. 



The third photograph gave the kind of tree 

 which died. As they would see, it was planted 

 among areca nuts, breadfruit, and coconuts, at 

 distances of about 8 feet. The tree was pro- 

 bably ten or eleven years old and from the 

 position of the spot it might have been infected 

 about four years. The tree was planted under 

 the dense shade of other coconut trees, and trees 

 planted in such circumstances certainly did die. 



The fourth photograph showed an old scar 

 with a recent bleeding patch just above it. The 

 scar was at the base of the tree. The tree was 

 about 40 or 50 years old, so it was impossible to 

 guess the age of the scar at all. 



The Chairman (H E the Acting Governor) :— 

 Do you find that when you cure a tree it shows 

 any increased vitality ? 



Mr Petch : — I cannot say that has been 

 observed, but I should expect it to show an 

 increased crop. Statistics for export do not 

 give any support to the supposition that the 

 crops diminish booause of the disease. There 

 is one thing .1 would like to correct. It was 

 reported in 1901) that an estate was badly 

 affected and that the crop had been diminished. 

 As a matter of fact, the estate returns showed 

 that there had been a regularly increased crop. 



In answer to another question, 



Mr Petch — said that when he said there was 

 no sugar in the cabbage, or in the leaf, he meant 

 there was no sugar as such. There was sugar 

 bound up with other things, which might be set 

 free, but there was no 



FREE SUGAR FOR THE FUNGUS TO GROW UPON. 



Mr. Lushington— said that Mr. Petch con- 

 trasted Batticaloa and Kalutara trees and men- 

 tioned particularly that sugar was very essen- 

 tial for developing the disease. Had he found 

 in his experiments that there was very much 

 more sugar in the coconuts in districts like 

 Kalutara than in the dry districts like Batti- 

 caloa? He mentioned it because all toddy 

 drawing was always done in the western dis- 

 tricts, and if they went north, there was very 

 much less toddy, he believed. 



Mr. Petch — said they only had analyses from 

 that (the Colombo) side of the island so he could 

 pot make a comparison. They had no analyses 



from the Batticaloa side, but he would attribute 

 the absence of the disease on the Batticaloa side 

 to the fact that it was drier. 



Mr. Vanderstraaten — enquired if Mr. Petch 

 had experimented with Cyllin or Jeyes' disin- 

 fectant. 



Mr. Petch — said he had not and added that 

 he did not recommend the use of carbolic acid. 



In answer to a further question — Mr Petch said 

 he had found the disease within about 4 feet of 

 the cabbage. It was practically certain that the 

 spores found in the pool were blown on to the 

 husks from the trees. 



Mr Sheridan Patterson: — Is there any use in 

 washing the stems of trees with copper sulphate 

 as a preventive ? 



Mr Petch : — I hardly think the advantage is 

 worth the cost. 



Mr Sheridan Patterson : — I think it costs 

 R2-50 to R3 an acre. 



Mr Petch :— In that case I should do it. 



The discussion was closed by the Chairman 

 who said : — I feel sure, gentlemen, that I shall 

 be echoing your wishes if I express to Mr Petch 

 the great obligation under which we feel our- 

 selves for the most interesting discourse he has 

 given. 



COCONUT STEM DISEASE 

 AND CROPS. 



Marawila, June 13. 

 Dear Sir,— Surely Mr. Petch ought to have 

 known the habits of the coconut tree better 

 than to state that stem disease has not affected 

 crops. Mr, J D Vanderstraaten read a paper 

 not long ago and said that the results of his 

 dissections showed that the crops of three years 

 are inside the stem of the tree. He should 

 have told Mr. Petch that it was too soon for 

 him to have drawn inferences. I must, how- 

 ever, state that my invariable experience 

 has not been in accord with the conclu- 

 sions drawn by Mr. Vanderstraaten as the 

 result of his surgical investigations. Without 

 exception, I have always found improvement in 

 the appearance of the trees and in blossoms, 

 12 to 18 months after the application of manure. 

 The resulting crops are gathered 12 months 

 after that. — Yours faithfully, 



B. 



GROWTH OF RUBBER. 



We are credibly informed that on a well- 

 known estate in the Malay Peninsula 3,060 trees, 

 planted 15 by 15 ft. apart, attained a girth of 

 18," 3 ft from the ground, in four years from the 

 date of planting. This is about equal to the 

 growth of the rubber on several of our more 

 advanced estates. But what is most gratifying 

 in connection with those trees is the fact that 

 they produced, during the fifth year of their 

 existence 7,629^ lb of rubber or an average per 

 tree of 2"49 lb.— British North Borneo Herald, 

 May 17. 



