Fronds,

Palms, Robbed Of

Soon Wither

Letter to the Editor THE Tongan who wrote to you and de scribed the harm done to coconut palms by the indiscriminate cutting of fronds for village purposes is per fectly right. This can be a serious matter.

To maintain full bearing, a palm-tree requires 24 healthy leaves. Therefore, when the fronds are removed, the palm has to produce more leaves before bear ing more fruit. Without the support of its leaves, the growing bunch of nuts will gradually lose hold, until it is torn off by its own height.

You may see examples of this kind of vandalism in Fiji, just as in Tonga— especially around the native villages, where handy trees, continually denuded of their foliage, remain stunted and un profitable, and gradually die off in the end.

I am, etc.,

Elizabeth Hennings.

Vaitauba, Fiji.