Vol. XIV. No. 340. 



Till' AGKICULTURAL NEWS 



II'. 



SELECTION OF COCO-NUTS 

 PLANTING. 



FOR 



As the result of an started by this 



rtment into the question if the desirabilitj of 



planting purposes, 

 the Royal Botanic < Jardens is given I he matter- 



ion, and an interesting article on the subject lias 

 ired in the Kt w J><< i No. 2 of 1915). 



! • !ii> inforn ation is reproduced 



In .it-, it is 



,i widely held beliel po tig trees should 



d, and thai plants shou I o 

 fully matured trees. 



This belii f app I lie following pass- 



om Simmonds's '/'•• : an The mil Pi o 



3pri ml tng i e fully ripe, having 



full, large eyes, and such as have been gathered from trees 

 ■ lie middle in d < and 



from clusters cot ruits. . . . Those nuts which 



may !«■ taken from I »e, v ill. it' planted, 



inlly 

 reared, on transplanting will g tid acquire 



bulk, but the fruit will drop tin- kernel acquires 



consistency, thi ! 



fail ln-f' n'' mid-age. 



Efforts have l n made to discover what truth there 



may be in the neither dii 



n nor absolute refutation has been obtained. On 



physiol iund I ippear to be no jusl iii 



cation for the statement as it stands, though no doubt it 



would be unwise o on to plant nuts from 



trei in the first | wo of their coming into 



The article he-re reproduces a paragraph fr 



Copeland's recenl work, in which it is stated thai seed 

 nuts should beselected from trees which are neither 

 oung nor very old. Xuts from young trees may 

 not show their true characters. Attention is also given 

 to 1'rain's Botany of the Laccadives chiefly in respeel 

 of the yields obtained in those islands. Continuing, the 

 writer proceeds to discuss facts that have been furnished 

 in regard to a plantation in the West Endies: 



Judging from particulars received of coco nut plantations 

 in the island ol Nevis, Wesl Indies, it would appear thai 

 coco-nut palms in their third year o bearing yield perfectly 

 Bound and full sized nuts, which, when used for seed, can be 

 relied upon t freelj and in a normal mi t. 



The plantations in Nevis u ed by Mr. Crum 



Ewing in the autumn of 1907 on old sugar-cane land, which 



nosl ;e se i level. The soil is a nice loam, graduallj 



g lighter until it bi i '"I on i he • i shore. 



The average rainfall for the years 1909 13 inclusive was 



inches, but the di fii 'mpensated for by the 



plentiful underground supply oi water draining from the 



■ 1 mountain which forma the centre of the 



small circular island i >1 Sevis. 



The si lined from Jamaica by Mr. Barclay, 



■ I the Jamaica Agricul tin Society, who took some 



trouble to obtain nuts from then/.-' healthy plantation in 



that island. The seed for thai plan ition in turn came from 



Bias, when.'. me the fine.sl nuts in the Western 



Hemisphere. 



The number of n mted up to the end of 191 I 



amounted to 10,305 Tl planted 



the acre, i I to hear in 1911, 



and Mr. Crum-Ewing . in 1912, four years 



months old, bearing forty mil ' ing in any quantity, 

 however, did nol -till 1913, when the 1907 



would • mouths old. 



From January 11, 1913, to June 30, 191 I. the mm 

 of nuts harvested amo ■ 23,807. From Januarj 11 to 



pas used which resulted in 77 I 

 at. of selects and 22 - 6 per cent, of culls. Both 



il i for l,0i .it he 



price which ha en paid for an n that 



city. Since I Ictobi r 23 a 3§-inch ' 



(which is I inch, larger than tie Malaj regu 

 •'! |-inch), and of the 75,116 nuts gathered, 68,419 

 pei cent, have been select, and 6,697 or 8"92 per cent, have 

 been culls. A selection is made in the field of the 

 w bile in the husk, and it is found t ba1 95 to 98 per 



cent, of these nuts wh ed are over the 3J gauge. . . . 



( )m of 1,1 'i' 11 seed enl to I lemerara in July 19 1 3, 



it was reported on I i n lary 28, 1913, thai 89 per cent, ol 

 these had germin the other- seemed i d, and 



thai more « i iw. In March I 9 I 3, fifty nuts 



were planted standing up and fifty on their sides by way of 

 experiment in Nevis. On October 24, 1913, il was repi 

 that out of the fifty on their sides forty-six, or 92 per cent, 

 erminated, and i tanding up only thirty or 60 



per cent, had germinated. 



The high percenta iod-sized nuts on il 

 plantations at Nevis is of both general and comnii 

 interest, and affords ample justification for the greal trouble 

 which was taken in selecting the original seed nuts in Jat 

 and elsewhere. As to the selection of tin- seed Mr. Crum 

 Ewing writes: 'I do not understand Simmonds "take 



seed nuts from clusters containing few fruits on a prolific 

 tree there should he no such clusters. 1 quite agree with 

 you that seed nuts should be taken from trees whose good 

 character is well marked. It appears to me that theped 

 of a coco-nut tree is of the Utmost importance. Even if I 

 had one- or two year-' experience of a tree, and it showed the 

 same characteristics, for which its parent, and yet again it 

 grand-parent had been selected, I would rather use the 

 from that tree than take Simm Is's advice to choose one- 

 picked from a sparsely furnished cluster grown on a 

 the middle age, of whose parentage there was no record.' 



The nuts which are now being planted on Mr. Crum- 

 Ewing's land in Nevis and in Demerara are taken from the 

 youngtrees planted in Nevis in 19()~. As already mentioned, 

 the germination percentage of the nuts senl from Nevis to 

 Demerara in July 1913 was 89 per cent., which certainly 

 refutes the statement made by Simmonds that nuts from 

 young trees 'rot awaj al the eye.' Mr. ( 'run. nforms 



ii- thai In- is planting nothing but his own Nevis seed both 

 in the island and in Demerara, and adds: '1 feel justified in 

 -I. doing, knowing the great care with which the seed is 

 s. -Iicted, the minute o m to which the individual trees 



have been subjected, the absence of disease in the groi 



in the island, and the g I stock from which the parents and 



grandparents were deri 



These experimental planting- should, in the course of 

 a few years, enable a proper estimation to be made of Sim 



i s statements, but in the light of the practical experience 

 already gained, il sei blj unlikely that his r< mmen- 



dations will receive sup] 



