dd 
as applying a fertilizer to the ground. ‘The amount of transpiration can 
be increased in two ways—by increasing the amount of water at the 
disposal of the roots and by improving the conditions for its evaporation 
from the leaves. 
In seasons of drought the first method does the plant a double service, 
for the water which is artificially furnished is not only valuable in itself 
but also because of the substances dissolved in it. However, during other 
seasons, irrigation may not merely be useless but even very injurious, for 
ground too wet does not favor the activity of coconut roots any more than 
that which is too dry. 
We have seen that the transpiration of the coconut is somewhat accel- 
erated by the wind, and greatly so by intense illumination. ‘Therefore, 
so long as the roots are not in too dry a soil, it is in the plant’s interest 
to be exposed as much as is normally possible to these two agents. On 
any considerable tract devoted to coconut culture this can be done in but 
one way—by not planting the trees too close together. 1 have never seen 
a grove in which the trees were sufficiently far apart so that, unless other 
conditions were very unfavorable, the trees around the outside were 
not much more productive than those in the interior. At San Ramon, 
a considerable proportion of the trees are planted in double rows, one row 
along each side of a narrow road. In such a row, which contained no 
nonbearing trees, 1 found the yield at one cutting to average 22% nuts to 
the tree. A row of trees along the well-drained bank of a slough yielded 
an average of 27 nuts, all trees producing. A single tree standing by 
itself in the open yielded 55 nuts. In the interior of an old grove, the 
average for the producing trees was about 11, and in the same situation 
in a large one on the neighboring hacienda of 'Talisayan the average for 
bearing trees was only 8; the individuals in the area where this count 
was made were as a rule about 18 feet apart, their crowns interlaced 
freely, producing a rather dense shade, and many trees were without ripe 
nuts. 
I have no doubt that up to a distance of at least 15 meters any 
increase in the intervals between trees will result in an appreciable 
advance in the average yield per tree, but by planting beyond the inter- 
vals at which the interlacing of roots and of leaves would bring the trees 
into keen competition for water and light, and would also largely break 
the wind passing through the crowns, the increase in the yield of nuts 
for the individual trees would not be commensurate with the area of 
land in use. In my opinion, the trees in a grove can usually best be 
placed at intervals of about.9 meters. In exposed rows they may well be 
closer together, and where intense cultivation is economically possible the 
distance between them may be a little less. 
The natural habitat of the coconut is the strand. It is restricted to 
this because it bears fruit too large to be practically transportable by any 
