12 
CHAPTER V. 
THE COCONUT INDUSTRY. 
Crop for 1915 1916 1917 
Nuts exported in nature... 
200,673 
93,959 
106,775 
3) converted into coprah 
... 20,439,356 
18,573.844 
14,795,550 
yy y ? y> • • • 
• • • 
674,568 
575,179 
561,192 
}} >> jj soap 
tl , 
445,445 
437,983 
195,65a 
„ consumed locally ... 
... 
... 4,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
Total 
... 25,759,942 
23,679,955 
19,659,167 
Owing to the war the Messageries .\laritim9S steamers calling at Mahe were requisitioned 
-for the transport of troops. For that reason it has not been found possible to exoort the 
coprah made during the year except in small packages and by parcel posts. The bulk of the 
quantity exported was shipped by two cargo boats which were chartered for that purpose 
during the year in March and December. A very large quantity still remains ia the warehouses 
or stored on private estates. With such irregular exportations of coprah the local market for 
nuts has fallen from Rs 50 to Rs 25 and Rs 30 per t housand. It is calculated that the coprah from 
at least 6 million nuts is still lying unsold. The loss sustained by the coconut planters in 1917 
can therefore he reckoned at about 1000 tons worth at least Rs 300 a ton nett, cr Rs 300,000. 
This is the more disappointing in that top prices are paid in Marseilles for coprah and coco¬ 
nut oil at the present moment. Part of this loss will be recouped in 1918 or 1919. 
The coconut diseases are still very numerous and hardly combated eu ept by a few 
planters, in another chapter an account has been given of the small beetle disease, of the 
stem bleeding disease and of tbe leaf disease caused by a weevil (Diocalandra). 
The scale ir sects aie not so bad as last year owing to their being heavily parasite! by 
fungi. The fungus Cephalosporinm lecanii keeps in check Lecaniutn tessellaiun (cinnamon 
scale). I have to record the presence of a red healed f ungus, (Sphoerostilbe coccophila) which 
has been kindly identified by Miss Lorrain Smith of the British Museum. 
This parasite was found this year attacking orange scale (Mytilaspis citricola) at the 
Botanic Station. I also came across, on the hills a Mt. Sebert, a red fungus which looked the 
same and which 1 found attacking the same scale. I noticed on an avenue of areca nut palms 
at Government House (which for the last 10 years had been prevented from fruiting owing to 
the attack of Chiouaspis and Aspidiotus scales) that the palms suddenly recovered about the 
middle of 1917 putting forth several clusters of nuts each, without having been sprayed with 
insecticides. No parasitic fly was found as yet in a breeding cage to account for the sudden 
diappearance of the scale insects. This fortunate result is very likely due to some chalcidid 
parasite which has not yet been identified. 
If the fungus parasites are beneficial as an adjunct to combat scale insects there is ncr 
doubt that on the other hand the wet climate of Seychelles is beneficial to other fungi which- 
themselves attack our palms. I have found this year that the fungus Pestolazzia palmarum 
was attacking coconut leaves. This disease is not however to be feared. The fuugus has 
been attacking coconut palms here for a very long time but I know no trees as yet which has 
succumbed to this disease. The fungus kills out the tissue of the leaf and leaves reddish 
spots which are easily mistaken for the traces left by scale insects. At first the spot 3 caused 
by the fungus are whitish and microscopic but they soon assume the characteristic colour of a 
leaf tissue attacked by a fungus. The small central part of the spot is dead and ash coloured 
and the surrounding tissue shows the reddish yellow colouration of dying leaves. The spots 
are small (like shot holes) but they vary in size and often coalesce forming irregular markings 
on the leaf which at once takes a yellowish appearance. The young leaves are seldom attack¬ 
ed although I have seen a few trees with all the leaves infested at Port Glaud. This tree 
recovered after some time without treatment and from this I conclude that the Pestalozzis 
fungus is not as viiulent here as in some parts of the East. Sugarcane leaves are attacked 
also in much the same way and also without the same evil consequences. 
Several diseases probably of fungoid origin have increased lately in Seychelles. One is the* 
disease known in Trinidad under the name of little leaf disease owing to a certain number of 
leaveiof the crown and sometimes all of them getting reduced in size and shrivelled. Another 
very similar disease is very common on the hills on native palms as well such as Verschaffeltia 
splendida (palmier latte) Stevensonia grandiflora (latanier feuille) and Deckenia nobilis (chon 
palmiste) etc. The causative organisms of these diseases have not yet been identified. Sometimes 
only one whorl of leaves is affected and the tree recovers but sometimes the whole crown of the 
tree is involved showing many symptoms of the bud rod disease. 
The Rhinoceros beetle disease is increasing 4»many localities where the refuse from es¬ 
sential oil distilleries is heaped alongside coconut plantations. As 1 ton of cinnamon leaves 
is distilled every day in a factory of ordinary size one can imagine the quantity of refuse 
accumulated in the year ; one ton of cinnamon leaves measuring about 4 cubic metres. Mea¬ 
sures have been taken on many estates to get rid of the refuse by digging it in trenches or 
tpreading it on the surface of the ground in coconut plantations. Most estates are however 
go much handicapped from want of capital and consequently of labour that the work of dig¬ 
ging in the refuse is not carried out properly. As the Rhinoceros beetle is gaining ground it 
jtg auvisable that before compulsory measures for their destruction are adopted that another 
system of furnace for burning the leaves used as fuel in the distillery itself should be invented. 
In Mauritius the same question was solved when the refuse from the sugar cane factories was^ 
Twin d to contain too much water to be used directly as fuel by adopting specially ^constructed 
wide sloping iwrnanees with a large admission of air. 
