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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

ICO. 882/10

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

iously retrograde, and I am of opinion that the position

cannot be improved by any means other than a sustained and clear policy of encouragement and enlightenment for several

years.

A. The Coconut Industry.

4. This is the most important industry in the Colony, the value of the exports of products of the coconut pala in 1920 being Rs.1,022,516 out of a total value of exports of Rs.1, 910,015. The area planted in this crop is stated to be 23,000 acres, as compared with 10.000 acres planted in other crops and a total acreage for the Colony of 100,000 acres. In appendix No.II*to this Report will be found the values of the exports of copra from 1908 onwards, and the serious effects on this industry of the shortage of shipping caused by the Great War will be noted. It is evident from these figures that the industry has since the war aseumed its old importance, and that there is every prospect of still further increases provided that the prices of copra and other products remain constant.

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5. The average number of nuts reaped per year for the period 1915 1919 is calculated to have been about 23, 330,000. It may be taken that there are on the average 100 palms to the acre, and there are stated to be 23,000 acres under this cultivation. The annual yield of nuts per acre is therefore 1000, and the annual yield per palm is 10. I regard this as low, and I append tables giving the yields of several properties in the Colony illustrating the effects on the annual crop of good and poor methods of cultivation and manuring respectively (see appendix III *,

6. There is evidence that during the period 1913 to 1916 a diminution of crop occurred in certain properties coincidert with increased severity of disease. In all the cases I have been able to study, this diminution appeared to take place on properties which had never been manured, cultivated or adequately cleaned, and the lessening should in my opinion therefore be attributed to neglect rather than to the diseases. At the same time it should be pointed out, in fairness to the planters, that during the whole period of the existence of the Department of Agriculture in this Colony, there does not appear to have been any attempt to establish manurial and cultivation experiments or demonstra- tions with this crop, or to publish the results of experi-

* Not printed.

ments systematically carried out on Government land.

7. The commoner diseases of coconuts in the Colony are the following:- Melitomma insulare, Oryotes rhinoceros and several Scale-insects, among the insect pests; the most serious fungoid disease is that known as 'bleeding stem' (Thielaviopsis), while a few cases of a disease resembling the 'leaf-droop' disease now under investigation in Ceylon are found: I have seen no cases of undoubted budurot, although reports of sporadic cases of a malady known as 'maladie des petites feuilles' appeared to agree to some extent with the usual description of 'bud-rot'.

8. None of the diseases mentioned above, with the single exception

of Melitonira 18 likely to offer any difficulty in treatment. Good, clean cultivation, regular manuring, and prompt attention to treatment of individual cases will, I think, go far towards keeping them in control. The Melitomma beetle presents a more difficult problem: the damage being done by this insect is very great, amounting on many properties to the outright loss of 20 to 25 per cent of the trees during the past ten years, and in addition permanent damage to a large proportion of the remaining paims. As the coconut palm has not the power of healing wounds possessed by dicotyledonous plante, surgical operations on its tissuse permanently damage the trunk and lessen the yield. For this reason, it is urgently necessary to devise preventive rather than curative methods, or to discover some natural means of control, and I am devising experiments in this connection.

9. In 1919 an Ordinance to provide for the Destruction of Plant Pests was passed by the Government, and since then the Oryctes beetle, the Melitamm beetle and the fungoid 'bleeding stem' disease have been proclaimed. doubt that this Ordinance, which is enforced by the Curator There is no of the Botanic Gardens and an Inspector of the Department of Agriculture, has had marked effects on the methods of cleaning properties and of controlling diseases. illustrations of the benefits of the operation of the Ordinance were shown to me. In future years the difficult- ies in the way of this work should materially lessen, and the duties of the Inspectors should be more closely associated with methods of agricultural instruction than with forcible cleaning of estates.

Numerous

10. I may sum up the position of the coconut industry by

4.

3.