Digest

Pacific

Planters '

Guides For

Coconut Replanting

THE copra grower who is replant ing will do well to stick to the guiding rule of using seed nuts from good mother palms. It is inadvisable to use seed nuts other than from palms which are healthy and free from disease and those which have proved their worth by having had 10 to 14 bunches of nuts and at least six nuts on each bunch.

The seed nuts chosen should be fully grown and ripe and neither damaged nor sprouting. Before plant ing seed nuts in the nursery, it is best to leave the nuts in a pre nursery to find out which do not germinate.

The pre-nursery need be no more than a piece of shaded ground with a fence around it, and in it seeds should be placed, on their sides and close together.

If twice as many nuts are placed in the pre-nursery as needed, a choice will be possible when the nuts start to sprout.

In the nursery, selected seedlings should be planted in straight lines 12 inches apart and in rows 18 inches apart. Nuts should, again, be placed on their sides and almost covered with soil.

The nursery ground should be mulched with leaf and coconut fronds.

Seedlings selected from the nursery for planting out should have three or more leaves, be a healthy green colour, have strong, straight stems and no insect or disease damage.

Vital That Drains

Should Be Maintained

[] N all hillside land some land ” erosion will occur, even under natural conditions. It is increased after the land has been cleared for establishing a plantation. Generally, erosion on hillside plantations is not as serious as the steepness of the land night suggest, but it is enough to do lomething about, especially in young alantations.

The slow, insidious eating away )f the soil by water tends to go un loticed. Drains to handle the water

from heavy falls of rain are essential, especially in young plantations after clearing and before a mulch of dead leaves and stalks has accumulated in sufficient quantity to cover the soil.

The drains should discharge into natural watercourses or on to pastures, and drains need to be small and close together rather than few and widely spaced.

The most important drain is the one that runs outside and above the plantation. Its job is to catch the water and take it away before it runs into the plantation.

Drains should be properly main tained and kept free of rubbish. The overflow from a blocked drain can cause a lot of damage, and it is for this reason that drains can become a menace. As the young plantation comes into bearing, the drains are usually allowed to fill up and go out of use.

Roads through a plantation can be a major source of erosion, as they tend to concentrate water into all sorts of unnatural places and erosion quickly follows.

Roads should be looked after con tinually and water disposed of into natural gullies or on to pasture. It is a good idea to walk along the roads in heavy rain to see what is happening and to deal with any blockages in water-tables or drains.

An All-Purpose

Insecticide

HEPTACHLOR is one chemical which has established itself in the tropics as an all-purpose insec ticide, for both plantation owners and farmers with small holdings.

Heptachlor has the adavntage of not giving an “off flavour” to any crop, it is economical to use, and when mixed into the soil at 2 lbs per acre will give several years protec tion.

Being emulsifiable the chemical will not leach in the soil after ap plication—a matter of importance in areas with heavy and constant rainfalls.

Heptachlor has not been known to cause phytotoxicity to any crop, except hops, and higher dosages than those recommended may normally be used for longer persistence in the soil.

For control of rhinoceros beetle in rubber stumps, palm stumps and logs, Heptachlor 2E should be flooded into and around the base of the stumps. Use one pint to three gallons of water or apply the con centrate with a sprayer during rain.

Grasshoppers can be controlled by using either one to li pints of Heptachlor 2E in sufficient water or

fertiliser per acre, or by using six to eight lbs Heptachlor granules per acre, making the application when leaves are wet or after rain.

Ants in pineapples are eradicated by using one lb granules per 2,500 sq. ft. or by spraying two qts 2E per acre to soil in sufficient water.

Heptachlor may also be used in wettable powder form at the rate of four lbs 25 per cent, wettable powder per acre in sufficient water or fertiliser.

Sugar cane pests wireworms, termites and cockchafers—are con trolled by using Heptachlor 2E at the rate of one gal per acre mixed into the soil at planting time. The 10 per cent, granules can also be used at the rate of 20 lbs per acre at planting time, and the 25 per cent, wettable powder at the rate of 8 lbs per acre mixed into the soil at planting time.

Soil insects in citrus, mangoes, coffee, cocoa and other tree crops can be controlled by using 20 lbs of Heptachlor 10 per cent, to the acre in any mixed (compound) fertiliser. Granules are advised in preference to the liquid or wettable powder Heptachlor for these tree crops.

The Preservation

Of Fence Posts

tropical farmers were not faced with any difficulty in obtaining supplies of timber for fence posts. Now, however, as one Islands territory after another joins in the export of timber, in many areas supplies of highly durable wood for round posts are scarce or un obtainable.

For this reason the use of wood preservatives is becoming more im portant, as round posts of almost any timber species can be made as durable as the best split posts by means of suitable preservative treatment.

The principal cause of failure of posts is decay, which is the result of attack by fungi. Second in importance

among the post-destroying agencies

is the termite, commonly known as the white ant.

The preservatives available for Fence post treatments are in two :ategories; oil-types and water iolubles, both of which have shown ap well in the tropics.

There are many types of oil and vater-soluble preservatives but these ire the best known;

Iil-Type Preservatives

Creosote.—An oil derived from he distillation of coal tar. It is a r ery effective preservative and has >een used for more than a century

in the preservation of railway sleepers, posts, marine piling and structural timbers. It is not advisable to dilute the creosote with sump oil or any other mineral oil as this will cause sludge formation and result in decreased penetration and dirtier posts.

Pentachlorphenol.—A greyishbrown flaky material soluble in mineral oils but insoluble in water.

It should be used as a 5 per cent. solution in a medium to heavy oil solvent such as dieselene.

Both creosote and pentachlorphenol are suitable for cold soaking, hot and cold open tank treatment, or low pressure soaking.

Water-Soluble Types

Some of these preservatives are suitable only for indoor use as they are easily washed out or leached from the timber by rain, Copper-chrome-arsenic salts.

This preservative is highly resistant to leaching and protects the timber against decay and termite attack, Copperized chromated zinc chloride.—This is less resistant to leaching than the copper-chrome arsenic preservatives. It gives a good protection from decay but it is less effective against termite attack, These preservatives are available in the form of a dry powder or a concentrate.