286 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



AtJGUST 31, 1912. 



COCO-NUTS: THE CONSOLS OF THE EAST. 

 By Harold Hamel Smith and F. A. C4. Pape, John Bale, Sons 

 d Daniehson, Ltd, London, lis. post free. 



A notice of the publication of this book appeared in the 

 Afjricultural Nen-s, Vol. XI, p. 236, and recently a copy 

 has been received from the author.s. 



The book aims at giving, as fully as its size will 

 allow, a complete account of the coconut palm, its cultiva- 

 tion, and the products to be obtained from it. It does 

 Bot enter into full details on every point, but each is 

 brought forward and full references are given which 

 enable the reader to procure the details for himself. 

 Each section of the book aims at being self-contained, so 

 that the reading of many pages of familiar matter may be 

 avoided. This course naturally leads to considerable repeti- 

 tion, but as the points repeated are all worthy of emphasis, 

 their reiteration is perhaps advisable; nevertheless, there 

 appear to be places where a closer confinement to the subject 

 indicated at the commencement of the chapter would have 

 been preferable. For example, under the title Cultivation in 

 Malaya, among other matters, general discussions are given 

 of prices, drying methods and planting distances, all of 

 which should have been relegated to the sections of the book 

 dealing more particularly with these points, where they are 

 expected to appear. 



After a foreward by Sir W. H. Lever, indicating the 

 value of coco nut cultivations and putting forward a plea for 

 Government assistance to intending planters, there is 

 a preface by Mr. Hamel Smith in which the question of 

 the establishment of one or more tropical agricultural colleges 

 receives some consideration — a question engaging attention 

 im .sevenil quarters at the present time. Then follows 

 a useful introduction on health in the tropics, written by 

 Mr. Pape and containing many valuable suggestions resulting 

 from a long experience. The first three chapters deal 

 adequately with the questions of the Cost of an Estate, Native 

 Ownership and Husbandry, and Locality and Site. Chapter I 

 contains carefully considered statistics, and provides a good 

 conservative indication of the amount of capital that will be 

 required for opening up an estate. Subsequent chapters deal 

 with the position and prospects of coco-nut planting in vari- 

 ous parts of the world. Among important matters dealt 

 with is the nature of the catch crops that can be grown 

 successfully in each locality, while the estate is coming into 

 bearing, and the kinds of stock that may be raised after- 

 wards, [t is to be observed that no mention is made of 

 Portuguese East Africa as a suitable country for coco-nut 

 cultivation — an omission which will probably be repaired in 

 future editions. 



The next section of the book deals more particularly 

 with the details of establishing an estate; separate chapters 

 are devoted to Clearing and Preparing the Land, The 

 Seed Nuts, Seed Beds and Nurseries, Laying out the Planta- 

 tion, Lining and Holinj;, The authors call attention to 



the necessity of selecting good nuts for planting, and to the 

 excellence of the nuts from San Bias, Panama, which maj- 

 be obtained from Panama shippers or from certain firms 

 in England. 



The subject of Disease is well treated, and good 

 references are given to original papers on it. Then follow 

 sections on manuring, mulching and catch crops. Adequate 

 emphasis is laid on the need of manuring and properly 

 caring for the estate after it has become established; and 

 light ploughing and harrowing are strongly advocated. The 

 advisability of this last course may be open to question, but 

 it would appear from experiments that the advantages 

 outweigh the defects. 



Subsequent chapters deal with the preparation of 

 copra, oil, alcohol, and fibre from the nuts, and accounts of 

 the most successful types of modern machinery for these 

 purposes are given; much attention is paid to the extraction 

 of oil from copra by means of liquid solvents, but perhaps 

 the expression method has been rather neglected. The 

 possibility of the preparation of products such as sugar, 

 vinegar, and paper of a rough quality, is touched upon, and 

 mention is made of the possible utilization of the water in 

 the nuts for the manufacture of vinegar. These industries 

 are not yet established, but it does appear that they may be 

 of some importance in the future. In connexion with 

 copra-drying and the preparation of fibre, it may be well to 

 call attention to two articles in the Agricultural News, 

 Vol. XI, pp. 254 and 265. 



The book under review closes with notes on stump 

 extraction and irrigation, and a chapter dealing with spraying 

 machinery In connexion with knapsack sprayers, it may be 

 remarked that those of the type of the Alpha machine des- 

 cribed on page 483 are much the best, as it is difficult in the 

 tropics to induce a labourer to use a machine with which it is 

 necessary to work the pump with one hand and direct the 

 spray with the other. The book contains a useful index, and 

 a good list of literature dealing with the coco-nut palm is 

 placed at the beginning. It is well illustrated throughout. 



The subject-matter of the book is excellent, as is 

 naturally the case when it is borne in mind that the reports 

 of well recognized authorities, only, have been consulted, and 

 occasionally reproduced, in its construction. These reports, 

 prepared during the last six years by men working on the 

 spot, contain the most reliable information now available as to 

 the best method.s of cultivating the coco-nut palm. They em- 

 phasize the points made in the book as to the need for careful 

 selection of seed nut.s, their planting in nurseries, wide plant- 

 ing in the field, careful manuring and cultivation, and the 

 use of good modern methods for obtaining the finished 

 products. The subject-matter thus procured is, on the whole, 

 well arranged and readable. One small blemish is noticeable 

 in a tendency to misquote the names of papers consulted. 

 This habit does not add to the readabilty of the book, and 

 certainly is not conducive to ease of reference 



Throughout the volume, a basis of forty-tij,''it trees to the 

 acre and forty nuts per tree per annum, is considered safe for 

 reckoning profits; it is, if anything, somewhat low, but it 

 probably represents a good all-round average. A well-merited 

 censure of certain company prospectuses appears on page 56; 

 advertisements of this nature, giving the mythical figures of 

 200 trees per acre and 200 nuts per tree, do more to harm 

 the development of such an industry than can anything else. 



In conclusion, it can be said that all coconut planters or 

 intending planters should obtain this book, which will be 

 found to be full of useful, practical, and thoroughly reliable 

 information. 



