564 



The {Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



THE FIRST APPEARANCE. 



.Shortly after the monsoon breaks, usually anywhere 

 from the beginning to the middle of July, we hear that 

 kolcroga has broken out in the Malnad parts of Shiinoga 

 and Kadur Districts. If we visit one of these gardens 

 we find that the nuts are beginning to drop down from 

 the bunches. If we look at one of these fallen nuts we shall 

 almost certainly find that it has more or less fully lost its 

 beautiful clear green colour and that a certain part of the 

 surface is covered by a whitish or grayish growth some- 

 what like cotton wool which has been soaked in water. 

 This is the white koleroga- (Of the black or water kuleroga, 

 which is a quite distinct thing, and which causes com- 

 paratively little loss, I shall say nothing today.) If we 

 scrape off some of the surface material and examine it 

 under the microscope, we shall find here again a mass of 

 interwoven threads. But we must not think that this is all 

 of the fungus. Before this material has appeared on the 

 surface at all, the fungus has been growing inside the nut 

 and nut shell, spreading out among its tissues and taking 

 up from it its nutriment and even its living substance. But 

 how did it get inside ? In order to understand this we must 

 study the life-history of the fungus more carefully. Asia 

 the case of higher plants, so in the case of the fungi, the 

 life of the individual may be divided, not very scientifically 

 it is true, into various stages. These are the stages of 

 germination or sprouting, the stage of growth and the 

 stage of fruit or seed building. These, of course, cannot be 

 separated by asharp line. For instance, growth continues 

 very commonly after seed formation has begun, and in the 

 case of trees it, of course, continues for many years. 



[Its life history, and known remedies, are de- 

 scribed and Dr. Coleman proceeds :] 



Eemedies. 



In the light of all these facts I thought it wise to attempt 

 the solution of the difficulty in another direction. The me- 

 thod consists in spraying on to the nuts as a fine mist a 

 solution of a substance which as long as it remains on the 

 surface of the nuts absolutely prevents the growth of any 

 of the spores of this fungus, that may fall on it. This ma- 

 terial, commonly known, as " Bordeaux mixture," from the 

 part of France where it was first used, is now used all over 

 the worlds as a means of combating fungus diseases. It 

 consists of a mixture of blue vitriol (copper sulphate) and 

 unslaked lime in water prepared in definite proportions 

 and in a definite way. To this I have added a solution of 

 resin and soda with a view to make the mixture stick well 

 to the nuts through the heavy rains of the monsoon. The 

 experiments this year were rather upset by the very late 

 arrival of sprayers from Europe and the very early break 

 of the Monsoon. The result is that most of the work was 

 done under about the most unfavourable circumstances 

 possible,.. My purpose was to have practically all my spray- 

 ing done before the Monsoon broke, but this I was unable to 

 do for the two reasons mentioned above. 



Altogether over a thousand trees were treated, and, con- 

 sidering the adverse circumstances, with very gratifying 

 results. It is, of course, essential for the success of such 

 an operation that the material U3ed should not be washed 

 off by the rains. In order that this may be managed, it 

 should first be able to dry on to the nuts. This, I may say, 

 •was by no means possible in all cases with our experi- 

 ments. In every garden but one (that at Seetoor) some 

 rain fell during the operations or so soon afterwards that I 

 had my serious doubts whether most of the solution would 

 not be washed off. The results are, as I say, not yet all 

 known, but as far as I myself have seen and as far as has 

 been reported by my staff, with a single exception, where 

 the spraying had clearly been most carelessly and badly 

 done, where nuts have become diseased on sprayed 

 bunches only a very few have been affected, so few in fact 

 as to be practically negligible and be readily accounted for 

 by the material having been washed off before it was dry 

 or by the spray having not been evenly put on 



In conclusion, let me emphasize a few points in con- 

 nection with the whole subject. The removal and burning 

 of all old diseased parts, bunches, nuts, tree- tops is the 

 very fitst step in the corabatingiof this disease. The system 

 of tying covers is more or less efficient but can hardly 

 allow of itself being carried out so thoroughly, nor is it so 

 efficient, as to give the very best results possible. The 

 system of spraying the Bordeaux mixture, although but in 

 its experimental stage, seems almost certain to be the 

 best method of controlling the disease. It has one great 

 advantage over kott< -tying not mentioned above, viz., that 

 even where a bunch lias already some nuts attacked, the 

 disease can be checked, whereas kottcs would favour rather 

 than hinder the growth of the fungus under such circum- 

 stances. In addition, it gives the nuts their normal amount 



of light and air, which the kottcs do not allow of. Its 



application in no way injures the nuts as far as our ex- 

 perience goes. Any combative measure to meet with the 

 best success must be undertaken before the disease has 

 appeared ; it must be in the nature of insurance against 

 attack. This appears especially to be so in the case of 

 fcotte-tying and in every case is a thing which I wish to 

 emphasize most strongly.— M. Mail, Nov. 2. 



TRAVANGORE AGRICULTURAL 

 DEPARTMENT. 



A Year's Work. 



The report on the working of the Agricultural 

 Department for the past Malabar year, ending 

 with the 16th August, 1909, submitted to Gov- 

 ernment by Dr. N. Kunjan Pillay, the Director 

 of Agriculture, is an interesting document. The 

 Department, as reorganised during the year, 

 consists at present of a Director of Agriculture, 

 one Senior Agricultural Inspector, two Agricul- 

 tural Inspectors — all Diplomaed Agriculturists 

 of the Agricultural College at Saidapet — two 

 Agricultural Sub-Inspectors — local and Madras 

 trained men— and a Laboratory Assistant. 



The work in the Government iarms was 

 changed from demonstration to experiment. 

 The Director says that the value of demonstra- 

 tion in stimulating interest among the ryots iu 

 improved methods of agriculture is not under- 

 rated, and that before an improved method is 

 recommended to the ryots, its suitability to 

 local conditions must be tested ; and hence in 

 the natural course of things, demonstration 

 ought to succeed experiment. There is an Ex- 

 perimental Farm at Kottarakara (Central Tra- 

 vancore) and the Farm at Quilon is retained 

 purely for purposes of demonstration. There 

 is also a Cattle Farm opened at Trevandrum 

 and an Agricultural Laboratory. The Demons- 

 tration Farm here has been changed into an Ex- 

 perimental Farm. Its total area is 33£ acres, of 

 which only about 25 acres are available for 

 cultivation. The soil is a saudy loam, consist- 

 ing chefly of alluvial deposit brought down 

 from the adjacent compounds and paddy fields 

 and by the floods in the Karamanai river close 

 by. Being very near the river, the farm is sub- 

 ject to inundations. 



The Coconut Palm Disease. 



Next in importance to paddy is the coco- 

 nut. In view of the prevailing disease attack- 

 ing the coconut palm, a Special Officer, in 

 the person of Mr. BV S. Narayanaswamy Iyer, 

 has been making enquiries into the pest. The 

 necessary experiments are being conducted at 

 fixed centres in Central Travancore by the 

 Special Officers, and it is premature to form 

 any definite conclusions, as the earliest ex- 

 periment is only nine months old. It is, how- 

 ever, satisfactory to note that the letting value 

 of the compounds taken up for experiments 

 has increased since the starting of the ex- 

 periments—a testimony to the practical nature 

 of the remedial measures adopted by the 

 Special Officer. It will be remembered that 

 one of the suggestions made by Dr. E J Butler, 

 the Imperial Mycologist, who investigated the 

 disease here, was to destroy all attacked trees. 

 In the opinion of Dr. N Kunjan Pillai, " the 

 destruction of attacked trees is impossible iq 



