April I, 1889.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
653 
or third year. The trees have then to fight for life 
every south-west monsoon until they are seven 
or eight years old. One reason why the foliage of 
the young trees suffers so much more than the 
leaves of the older trees is that, of course the 
lower strata of the rapidly moving atmosphere are 
more heavily laden than the higher with saline parti- 
cles caught in the shape of spray from the tops of 
the sea waves ; those particles being fewer and fewer 
in the loftier atmospherical altitudes. Some at least 
of all the salt spray carried by the monsoon 
storms ought to reach the coconuts at Veyangoda, 
whence "B. " writes rather wildly, we think, for 
a man so generally sane and sensible, advo- 
cating the application of salt in almost un- 
limited quantities to coconuts. He laments the 
lapse of the old practice of depositing a quantity 
of salt with each coconut plant put into the 
ground. It is all the fault of a backward kind 
of progress, and he quotes with approval the non- 
progressive character of coconut cultivators in 
China, who continue the practice which he laments 
as obsolete in Ceylon. We would suggest as possi- 
ble that the main reason for the deposit of salt 
round a coir-covered nut well able to resist the 
corrosive effects of the mineral was the destruc- 
tion of those great enemies of youn r coconut 
plants, white-ants ? No doubt salt is valuable in 
absorbing moisture, and, as it stiffens the straw 
of cereals, we can understand its value to a plant 
like the coconut, the stem and branches of which 
require so much siliceous matter which the salt 
renders soluble for their outside covering. In 
moderation too, and properly diluted and diffused, 
salt cannot but be beneficial to coconut palms 
grown inland. But we must enter a mild protest 
against such statements as that " salt can never 
be present in too large quantities in a soil on 
which coconuts thrive." Of course in one sense this 
is true : where coconuts thrive, salt cannot be 
present in excess. But what "B." obviously meant 
was that no possible quantity of salt can be 
excessive as an application to soil on which 
coconuts are expected to thrive. "B." for the 
momeut forgot his Bible lesson about the effects 
of " sowing with salt." Such a process was 
and still is death to all vegetation. In the 
interests of moderation, too, and in view of 
what may not in the abstract be best, but of 
what is possible in dealing with an Oriental 
people, we would qualify the dictum of Liebig 
as to the evils of a tax on salt. Taxes on food 
and on a condiment so essential as salt ought, 
if possible, to be avoided, and so ought customs 
imposts, all save a few. But if we gave up 
grain taxes (the inland and import taxes in 
Ceylon stand or fall together) and the salt 
monopoly in this island, Government in the 
interests of the people would be as impossible 
as is an income tax (the fairest of all taxes 
in the abstract) in a country such as this. Be- 
side which, the salt tax falls very lightly on the 
people; salt is issued at an exceptionally cheap rate for 
fish-curing, and we cannot doubt that a similar course 
would be pursued in issues for agricultural pur- 
poses, were there any virtues in salt, as a separate 
application, which cannot be secured by the use 
of substanoes more generally valuable, such as 
potash sulphate, or kainit. We certainly have, as 
yet, no proof, from actual experiment, thai pure 
salt is so valuable as a fertilizing matter that 
the undoubted risk of injury to an important 
branch of revenue ought to be incurred in order 
to place it, at exceptionally cheap rates, at the dis- 
posal of agriculturists generally. If "B." knows of any 
such experiments in coconut culture, ho will doubtless 
quote them and state their results. If 
not, it will bo hin obvious duty now 
to institute a series of exhaustive experi- 
ments, for which, we doubt not, Government will 
be ready, under proper precautions and pledges, to 
supply a few tons of salt at cost price. For 
ourselves, we remain sceptical as to any special 
manurial value in salt pure and simple, while 
we can easily understand why the refuse of fish- 
curing yards, consisting of offal mixed with salt, 
should be rapidly and largely beneficial in coconut 
culture. As an application to tea, we should say 
that such refuse ought to be mixed with at least 
an equal weight, perhaps a doubled weight, of 
castor cake and bones or superphosphate. 
Meantime, what have Haputale planters to say 
to the theory that tea in the eastern part of that 
district is affected injuriously by the salt carried 
on the sea-breezes 
As to the Disease in the Coconut Leaves, (spots 
probably of chemical origin), against which " B." 
wishes to fight with ammunition composed of salt, we 
do not think it need cause much anxiety, an opinion 
which we share with experienced coconut planters. 
Coconut palms, like other trees, have their enemies, 
the most formidable of which are beetles, lightning 
and protracted droughts. These are fatal to a certain 
proportion of trees in all groves or topes of coconuts. 
The late Mr. W. Ferguson described a visitation 
of moths some years ago, by which the foliage 
of the coconut trees in Slave Island was devoured; 
and at one time we heard much of locusts near 
Negombo. But the attacks were, in these cases, 
local and circumscribed, and we never heard of any 
trees being killed by such visitations. One of the 
chief benefits of saline applications would be their 
destructive effect on insect and fungous lifo, care 
being taken that the quantity was not such as 
to endanger the life of the palm. 
Dr. Trimen, we imagine, will be scarcely able to 
appreciate the distinction between his diagnosis 
"suffering from innutrition" and that substituted, 
"suffering from a disease caused by innutrition." 
When we say that people are suffering from 
famine, we mentally include all the diseases 
which are the result of famine, prominently debi- 
lity. Just as the skin of human beings in Ceylon 
indicates the effects of innutrition by the loath- 
some affection of " parangi," so the coconut leaves 
make signals of distress by blotches in tissue, 
such blotches being really dead matter in which 
the circulation of the juices has ceased. A stiff 
soil, absence of moisture near the surface, and a 
droughty atmosphere, ever produce such effects, 
sometimes in an aggravated form. The main 
remedy is tillage, and to the stirred soil 
a moderate application of salt is likely to do 
good, but with the chloride of sodium, whioh is 
a oondiment more than a food, we submit that 
it would be wise to mix fish or fish offal if it 
can be procured, or else ground bones and crushed 
castor-cake. If plenty of salt fish or fish offal 
were available, and we trust the multiplication 
of fish-curing yards may ultimately produce this 
result, it is obvious that pure or impure salt 
crystals might be dispensed with. Our ex- 
perience with hemileia on coffee has taught us 
that there are somi peculiar and specific affeo- 
tions, which even tiie richest supplies of nutri- 
tive matter, phospliatic or nitrogenous, cannot 
combat effectually ; but, happiiy, tln-re is no 
suspicion that the c^coi ut, or any other of our 
cultivated products, is likely to suff r from 
anything equivalent to the deadly ooflV fungus. 
In this connection wo call attention to the letters 
on page 654-5 of two of the most experienced 
coconut planters in the country — Messrs. Lamonl 
and Jardine — with their remarks on the socallcd 
new disease on the cooonut palm. 
