30 



the weevil is to be cherished, or that of staying its ravages before it 

 has laid the entire cotton industry of the South under tribute, there 

 would seem at present to be no other alternative than to secure by 

 discovery or development, within the next few years, a variety of 

 cotton in which the larvse of the boll weevil can not mature. 



The present brief outline of the results of our study of cotton in 

 Guatemala may be summarized by saying that the tendency to 

 rapid growth and early fruiting, the large extrafloral nectaries 

 which attract the ants, and the proliferation of the tissues of the 

 young buds and bolls which kills the weevil larv^, are protective 

 adaptations, developed as a result of long contact between the 

 cotton plant and the boll-weevil. The proliferation is not a mere 

 pathological abnormality, but represents a definite evolutionary 

 tendency, capable of further increase by selection. If this in- 

 terpretation of the facts be correct it affords an intimation of a 

 successful solution of the weevil problem by means of a resistant 

 variety of cotton. 



NOTES ON THE CULTIVATION OF COCONUT, 

 SUGAR CANE, COFFEE AND COCOA. 



By W. M. Cunningham, Asst. Superintendent and Agricultural 

 Instructor at Hope Gardens. 



The following notes were prepared for a small cultivator who 

 wrote asking for information, and as they may be useful to others 

 they are now published : — 



Coco-Nut Palm — This tree requires a loose soil, its slender 

 horizontal roots often extend to the distance of forty feet ; they 

 are formed of a ligneous body, surmounted by a spongy tissue 

 and covered with a reddish epidermis. 



Soils. — There are two kinds of soils on which coco-nuts refuse 

 to grow to any profitable purpose, namely, thin washed gravels 

 overlying rocky foundations, and stiff clays, or compact clayey 

 soil, which retains water ; not only are the roots prevented from 

 spreading, but they rot. The richer the soil, the quicker they will 

 grow and bear the earlier ; the best soils for coco-nuts are deep 

 alluvial loams on the banks of rivers, subject to floods that over- 

 flow on the neighbouring lands ; all level lands exposed to the sea- 

 breeze where the soil is good, as the valleys between hills, which 

 have been filled up. In such situations the crops are enormous ; 

 the next quality of soil is brown loam, but it is only found in 

 certain districts, and seldom extends into the higher uplands. A 

 loamy sand is a good coco-nut soil, and, with careful cultivation, 

 is only slightly inferior to the alluvial and brown loams. 



Holes. — Coco-nut holes cannot be made too large, say three feet 

 deep by three feet wide, and they should be filled in for half their 

 depth with soil from the surrounding surface. It is important to 

 give the plant the means of a fair start, and eighteen inches of 

 loose rich soil, below and all around it, is the best available 



