New Britain herald., 1915-04-02
Cuba's Cocoanut Groves.
(New York Sum-

SuDd SOCOanut Groves.
 (New York Sum-
 Cuba without the cocoanut palm ringing the white surf and bending "a akishly over the trails that wind into the foothills would lose much of it's enchantment for visitors. What the natives would lose by the disap-
 pearance of the cocoanut palm needs TO exposition. One indeed does not
 have to be a native to know its mani- fold uses. The royal palm, rearing its plumes in solitary state, is splen did, and in groups and approaches to country houses its immaculate stems and tossing fronds are magnificent beyond the power of words; but the | royal palm is more to be admired than loved. The cocoanut palm seems human by comparison, dowdy perhaps and careless of it's looks, but social, neighborly and kind; a tree to live with, dream under, die under even, in sight of the sea. A man enamored of the tropics might embrace Cocos nucifera in a transport of sentiment, but he would never think of taking liberties with Oreodoxa regia.
 In the last number of Modern Cuba we find the warning again repeated
  of the Antilles are dying fast, just as our naples, eln1s and chestnuts are succumbing to disease. Tn 1908 an alarm was sent out from Baracoa, that ancient palm embowered, lonely sea town just around the corner from Cape Maisi and the Windward Pas sage. Baracoa is great cocoanut market and the trees were sorely inE h1- ;rco v-a1 the same story comes from all parts of the island. According to John R. Johnson, an authority upon this
 palm. the exportation of cocoanuts from Cuba has fallen from 25, ,00o, ,o00 to 100000 in few years. Unfor- tunately it is hard to arouse the peo- pie to save their inheritance. They have wasted it with no thought of the morrow, and they will not play the healer to what is left. Jamaica and Trinidad are up and doing. Tn those British islands the authorities deal with bud dot. vigorously. Trees are cut down by hundreds and thou sands to prevent spread of the dis
 ease. From Trinidad a planter writes: '.-ts .-....s# go. You may remember what a. hot
 bed of disease the Laventille dis trict was. It was thoroughly cleaned up, all affected trees destroyed and an inspection made for three months. As result it is now in very healthy condition, and if the work is contin- ued the losses will become fewer and fewer every year" The Trinidad law enforces quaran-. tine against infected nurseries and plantations, and owners are com pelled to care for their diseased trees. Mr. Johnson urges the Cuban gov ernment to legislate to save the val table cocoanut growth of the island. It should do more. The nut planted in a sandy soil, covered with sea weed or soft tidal mud quickly ger inmates and sturdy plant shoots up. By the fifth year the tree bears mar ketable fruit. Five years may be considered a long time in Cuba to wait for 8 harvest, but unless the government protects the healthy trees on the island from bud rot' and en- couragcs new planting E. the cocoanut industry is doomed. The various gov crnnlents at Havana have had warn- Ing enough for considerable number of years. Cocoanut blight is an old story in the West Indies. When Charles Kingsley landed on she beach at St. Thomas more than forty years ago, realizing the dream ot a lifetime, he found the cocoanut palace dwindling, fading and dying i1 treot numbers under the attack of the elaters, firefiy or skipjack beetles Almost every cocoanut grove which we have secn," he says, has a sad and shabby look, as if it existed
 (which it does) on sufferance."
 Cuba today has an agricultural department that is supposed to em- ploy American methods. It assists the growers of tobacco, fruits and vegetables in many ways, judging from the bulletins issued, but no proc- tical work is being done to arrest the disease that threatens to destroy the valuable cocosnut groves of the is land. Surely the crop is worth sav- ing and increasing, though the gov ernment may fail to understand the attraction of the palms to tourists. who leave a good deal of gold in Cuba every winter.