THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July i, 1889. 
plants, breaking up tbe soil to the depth of one foot, 
and applied half a basket of lime each to the two 
most affected, and a basket each of ashes to the 
other two. I watered them subsequently and shaded 
the portion of the soil dug up, which by the way 
displayed no lack of apparently healthy roots, I was 
not convinced of the wisdom of breaking and dis- 
turbing the roots during the dry season, but the 
respect I pay to experience made me do it. Happily 
any damage done will be minimized, for we have 
had abundant raiu since. To two trees I applied half 
a measure each of salt after simply scarifying the 
soil round them to prevent the water, I subsequently 
applied from running over the hard-baked ground. 
As I said, rain has fallen since, and the effect of these 
different modes of treatment cannot be accurately 
gauged. Mr. Lamont is, as usual, enigmatical in his 
opinion of tbe cause of the affection. 
I wrote to Dr. Triinen a second letter inviting him to 
investigate the disease on the spot and giving him Mr. 
Jardine's and my theory of the disease. I enclose his 
reply, as I presume he will have no objection to its being 
published, as it is of public interest : — 
" I scarcely think that the mal-nutrition of your trees 
— to which I attribute the dead spots in their leaves — 
is due to want of salt in the soil ; unless indeed the 
land where they grow is quite abnormally wanting in 
this almost invariable constituent (which might be 
determined by an analysis). I should rather look 
to the physical properties of the soil, and especially 
to the drainage. I know, of course, nothing practically 
of coconut cultivation as a speciality, but should expect 
that the ordinary rules of treatment applied, and should 
certainly in your case give the soil round the trees a 
good thorough forking and perhaps a basket or two of 
manure to each tree. 
" That the mortified spots may be set going in the first 
instance by tbe punctures of a minute bug is by no 
mtans improbable. Its proof or disproof is simply a 
matter of careful and prolonged observation, and a few 
sharp little native boys would be the best persons to 
put on the work with instructions to catch everything 
they s^e on the leaves. 
" So far as I have seen, I am not disposed to consider 
these spots a very alarming phenomenon. They are 
pretty frequently to be seen on all palms if not in a quite 
healthy condition, and I quite expect that under a more 
liberal treatment they will cease to appear. Before 
deciding to come and see the trees, I shall prefer to wait 
for your further report." 
It will be borne in mind that my contention all along 
has been that the soil lit re possibly has an insufficiency 
of salt, not an entire absence of it. As I have said be- 
fore, trees growing both on stiff and free soils are attack- 
ed. As to drainage, I venture to think no coconut 
estate in the Island in upland districts is trenched so 
thoroughly and systematically as this is. This is a 
speciality with me. I may mention that I dug round 
the trees of this estate every other year, but as I 
believe the roots of the trees have advanced consider- 
ably outside the circle I have been wont to dig up, I 
discontinued the practise last year as likely to do more 
harm than good. I am of opinion that a very large 
circle round the trees must be forked, or the whole soil 
must now be broken up ; but this is a work I can only 
recommend. Iam willing, nay will be glad, to believe 
that the attack is due to bug, as I would much rather 
fight an insect than a fungoid enemy. It is certainly 
consoling to hear that the disease need cause no alarm, 
but I would have been more gratified if the good 
Doctor expressed this opinion after visiting an affected 
Estate. As to liberal treatment, I can point out 
to him a tree which received in October-November, 
10 baskets of cattle manure and one basket of ashes 
dug round it, as severely affected as any tree. 
This tree is a weakly specimen growing in a pretty 
stiff soil. I can show him another tree, a large one, 
growing in a very free soil and which had 31b. 
castor cake, ljlb ground bones and 1 Jib kainit in 
July last also affected. In this instance the soluble 
salts had evidently been washed out of the soil dur- 
ing the heavy rainn of the N-E monsoon and before the 
tree was able to take them up by forming new roots, 
and others that had two head of cattle tied at their roots 
for over a fortnight and their droppings dug into the 
ground with lib bones and one basket ashes. How is 
that for the innutrition theory ? No, this is a matter 
that cannot be decided at a distance. We wint a 
chemist and one who has made agriculture a stu lv to 
investigate it on the spot, and as soou as I saw the 
announcement of the arrival of Mr. Drieberg the newly 
appointed Superintendent of the Agricultural School, 
I wrote to the Colonial Secretary a-king for his ser- 
vices to investigate this disease.— " Examiner." 
«. 
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
(From the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information.) 
Fibre Industry at the Bahamas. 
Colonial Secretary's Office, Nassau, N.P., 22nd Nov- 
ember 1888. 
I am directed by his Excellency the Governor to 
call } our attention to the important question of fibre 
cultivation, now so largely engaging the minds of the 
public, and on which it is essential that the fullest 
nformation should be disseminated. 
During his Excellency's late absence from the Colony, 
he was enabled to gather some instructive particulars, 
which strengthens his faith in the part the fibre in- 
dustry is to play in the speedy advancement of the 
Colony. 
Through the good offices of the Crown Agents for 
the Colonies in London, the following statement was 
obtained form Mr. Thomas Briggs, a gentleman of 
great authority, to whom a sample of roug'i rope 
from Bahamas fibre was submitted for examination. 
Mr. Briggs states, under date September 3rd, 1888: — 
" This material I consider equal to very good Manilla 
hemp, and worth in the unspun raw state thirty-six 
to thirty-eight pounds per ton, colour excepted, which 
is not of very great importance. I consider it to be 
a very superior article for spinning in yarns for rope- 
making, and unless in bulk some ingredient should be 
found to counteract its apparent goud qualities, it 
should find a ready sale at the price I name." 
This testimony is highly satisfactory, and in the 
United States the article is not less fully estimated. 
It is, moreover, a staple commodity of commerce in 
which serious variations of value are not to be looked 
for, and this goes to rid the work of production of 
uncertain and risky conditions. 
With land and climate so adapted for the growth 
of the Sisal fibre, the plant being indigenous, ir, is 
remarkable that the industry had not acquired a 
practical existence until the Legislature gave it an 
impetus by the fostering Act of the Session of Feb- 
ruary last — so little was it generally regarded that the 
small farmers viewed the plant with despair as a 
noxious weed they were unable to eradicate. From 
every part of the Colony we now have gratifying proofs 
of an awakening and intelligent spirit and of the 
steady advance in the establishment of the industry, 
and public faith in its efficiency as an agent of 
general future prosperity increases as we proceed 
in the work of inquiry. There are some very inter- 
esting statements in a pamphlet recently published 
by Mr. Stoddart, of Jamaica, who spent some time 
in Yucatan, where the fibre industry has for some 
years been prosecuted with conspicuous success, under 
conditions of soil and climate not more favourable 
than we have in these islands We were aware that 
the plant is independent of drought, and this is 
Mr. Stoddart's experience. It was also believed in 
this Colony that it takes about three years after 
planting to bring the leaf to a productive state, 
and this i3 confirmed by Mr. Stoddart, who also 
affirms that it will then yield auuuaUy for 15 to 20 years 
without any material outlay on its cultivation. The 
produce of an acre in full growth Mr. Stoddart sets 
down at from one thousand to twelve hundre I pounds 
of fibre, and he corroborates the opinion held here 
that the plant thrives best on rocky and impoverished 
soil, and that it is shunned by cattle, aud con- 
sequently free from injury on this account. 
Mr. Stoddart's estimate of production, which it is 
not meant to impcaoh, admits of a large abatement 
