654 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1889. 
COCONUT PLANTING IN THE LOW- 
COUNTEY. 
Hapttigam Korale. 
"Weather. — We have the usual weather of the 
season, — a cloudless sky, a burning sun with fierce gusts 
of dry wind for six or seven hours daily, close even- 
ings and cool almost cold mornings. We have been 
rather better off for rain than last year, having had 
two good showers on the 7th and 8th January, and 
another of about a quarter of an inch on 13th instant. 
Crops. — The crop on the trees is an unusually 
small one, oil most estates in the valley. During the 
third quarter of last year the most favoured spots 
in the district had only about two inches of rain, 
and in consequence the two second best bunches in 
normal seasons will be wanting ; while those of the 
last quarter's flowers are hardly more than the average. 
The young fields, however, are worse than the old 
ones in this respect. 
Growth. — The last year has been very trying to 
one and two years old plants ; they have generally 
dropped more leaves than they have developed, and, 
except for increased length of leaf, are nothing ad- 
vanced during last year. 
Prices. — In sympathy with the recent small gather- 
ings prici s have gone up about 30 per cent on those 
of six months ago. From this district they are wanted 
for the upcountry trade. 
The Leaf Disease. — The leaf disease is not a new 
thing so far as I am able to judge; it is neither insect 
nor fungus, and is not infectious. It only differs in 
degree from what happens to the leaves of old 
bearing trees, when they begin to lose their hold 
on the stem, and the supply of sap that keeps them 
green fails. There are the same dark specks that in the 
same way become centres of grey rot. In old trees 
it is only the mature outer leaves that become so 
affected but on the two to six year old plants now 
suffering, the whole of the leaves in some cases even 
to the half-developed centre shoot are affected, and 
the dark specks appear not only on the leaflets but 
on the leaf-stem itself. During the past year we 
had two long droughts and two spells of heavy ram. 
The drought penetrated deep into the soil, and could 
hardly fail, to dry up the more superficial roots, and 
weaken them, perhaps destroy their vitality alto- 
gether ; or where any life was left the saturation by 
the soil, for six weeks together, may have finished 
up what the drought began, and thus the plant suffers, 
till it produces new roots from the common centre 
to restore the growth. In my own case abont 2 J per 
cent are affected, on a field of grey sandy loam, but 
with insufficient sand to prevent it from becoming 
as hard and impenetrable as a stone in dry weather. 
Oq the cabook land many young plants died, but net 
one was or is affected with this disease. The remedy 
I propose to use is to trench in a coolyload of 
cattle manure round each, when the weather serves. 
THE SUPPOSED DISEASE IN THE COCONUTS. 
CEYLON VS. COCHIN OIL. 
Kadirana, 16th Feb. 1889. 
In reply to your inquiry as to whether I 
have noticed anything of the coconut leaf-dis- 
ease mentioned by the " Examiner" 's Veyangoda 
correspondent as prevailing in that district; I may 
state directly that I have not. Since that letter 
appeared I have been on the lookout for signs 
of the disease, but neither upon young plants nor 
old trees have I observed any. At this time of 
the year there in always a larger number of leaves 
spotted and brown than during rainy weather, but 
they are not more numerous now than is usual, 
nor are any young fronds attacked in the way 
described by the " Examiner" 's correspondent. 
The nearest approach to the disease was observed 
on a few leaves on five plants about 8 years old 
growing on a cabooky hill; the leaves wore well 
up in the trees and were reddish and blotchy in 
appearance and evidently dying. I must state 
however that these trees were not good well- 
nourished specimens, but were small for their 
age, and others of the same age in their imme- 
diate vicinity were healthy and had no diseased 
leaves. Till I see trees attacked with the disease 
I cannot venture an opinion as to the cause. Has 
this peculiar, feature of disease on the leaves 
been observed anywhere else in Ceylon ? I am 
inclined to think however that something local 
will be found to be the cause. Possibly 
weakening of the stamina of the tree inducing 
insect attacks, as was the case with cacao a few 
years ago, 
I notice from time to time a good deal 
of discussion in the local papers as to the 
cause of the higher price of Cochin oil than is 
paid for the Ceylon article. I really do not 
know what the climate of Cochin is like, but 
have always had the idea that it is much drier 
than that of our Western and Southern Provinces, 
and that to this dryness it owes its superiority. 
I have also been of opinion that the well cured 
copra of the Northern and Eastern Provinces- if 
extracted alone, would yield oil quite equal to 
that of Cochin. This is only an opinion and 
can only be decided by actual experiment. Is, 
there not an oil-mill somewhere in Jaffna ? If 
there is, the prices realized by the oil made there 
if shipped to and sold in London should decide 
this question. When I began life as a coconut planter 
in Jaffna in 1850 to 1859 I remember that large 
quantities of Jaffna copra used to be shipped to 
the Coast of India. Did it find its way to Cochin 
and help to make Cochin oil ? Where is the 
market today for all the Jaffna and Batticaloa 
copra ? I see that some writers deny that any 
change takes place in the kerneis of the coconuts 
after they are plucked and heaped. Now why 
should there not? If a very material and im- 
portant change takes place in cereals after they 
are stacked, why should it be unreasonable that a 
change should take place in the constituents of 
the coconut kernel ? Manufacturers of copra 
will seldom husk coconuts till they have lain 
one month at least after gathering ; and owners 
of chekkus will tell you that they can extract more 
oil from copra, the nuts of which had been lying 
two or more months, than from copra made from 
freshly gathered nuts. There are many things we 
do, for which we cannot give a philosophic 
reason, yet experience teaches us that the custom 
is a sound and good one ; and this of keeping 
coconuts for some months before converting them 
into copra seems to be one of them. 
W. J. 
[The climate of Cochin is very wet at one season, 
— the S.-W. monsoon — and very dry for many months 
together, and we suppose the copra is cured in the 
dry months. The philosophy of keeping nuts for a 
prolonged period is probably to give time for the con- 
version of saccharine into oleaginous matter in the 
kernels. It is not likely that any Ceylon copra went 
to Cochin. Our information indicated that it went 
to Bombay and Calcutta, and that rich baboos and 
native merchants and officials who wished to 
attain the dignity associated with obesity used the 
liner kernels as a portion of their food. — Ed.] 
THE DIFFEEENCES BETWEEN CEYLON 
AND COCHIN COPEA. 
A merchant of great experience in this line 
is good enough to favour us with his opinion 
as follows : — 
" The reason of Cochin copra being better than 
Ceylon I believe to be the difference of climate. 
Then there is more dry weather during the year 
