July t, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST; 



39 



of poonac at once and repeat the doso yearly till uniform- 

 ity is attained. 



How an Old Estate was Treated and Sow it Responded. — 

 Having thus told what has been done in hastening the maturity 

 of youug coconuts in good soil by manure made ou the 

 spot from the natural produce of the very laud on which 

 the plants stand, I proceed to relate what was done with 

 trees twenty-one years old ou very poor sands. The estate 

 in question at twenty-one years old yielded a crop averaging 

 13J nuts per tree, and that was the largest it bad ever given. 

 The coppernh was worked up on the place ; there was a large 

 stock of half-starved cattle, and a stock of pigs were kept; but 

 all this had got the crops no further than l'ih nuts per tree. 

 At this stage, a new manager took charge, and, after due study 

 of the situation, be submitted a scheme that added about 

 10 per cent to the average annual expenditure. Some of the 

 points were strongly opposed by the agent, but, being a 

 reasonable man, he finally gave in to the reasons adduced 

 and sanctioned the complete plan. The pigs were got rid of, 

 as their local value was then only about 25c a stone dead 

 weight; one-third of the cattle stock was sold off by auction 

 without rosorve ; the whole remaining stock were allowed the 

 liberty of the poonac tubs, and a shed was constructed 

 roomy enough to hold the whole comfortably. There were 

 extensive -deniyas on the property overgrown with pan- 

 ferns and course grass, and four boys were set with small 

 single bullock-carts to cut and bring this stuff to the cattle 

 s hed, and spread it over all. Thus in the course of six 

 months, there was a depth of from two to three feet of 

 excellent manure. At the opening of the monsoon rains, the 

 cattle were moved to a fresh shed, and the manure carted 

 out and laid down at the rate of two and a half cubic feet 

 to each tree ; it was then scattered equally over the surface 

 and dug in with mamoties. The improvement of the'tr jes 

 and the increase of crops that followed this treatment was 

 marvellous. All the manure that could be made on the 

 estate, however, was a mere drop in the bucket ; such a 

 manuring only total on three crops.while it would have taken, 

 12 years to go over the estate. Still even this was sufficient 

 to cause a steady annual increase of crops from 13J up to 

 21 in six years. After some trouble, permission was granted 

 to try steamed bones, and in the sixth year, one tons was 

 used with such satisfactory results, that two tons per annum 

 were allowed for the next four years, with the result of 

 33i nuts per tree in the eleventh year. Shortly afterwards 

 this estate was sold to natives, and six years later the crops 

 were said to have fallen off to 12 uuts per tree. The whole 

 cost of manuring during those ten years aggregated Kl 

 per tree, and the value of something over K3 thus 

 recovered giving a return of 300 per cent on the outlay iu 

 four years, and there is not the least doubt that five 

 times the amount expended within the same time would 

 have given equally satisfactory results. 



The Coconut Tree, a Chemical Apparatus. — I look on a 

 coconut tree as a chemical apparatus, for turning carbon, 

 oxygen and hydrogen into oil. Those elements are not 

 counted in estimating the fertility of soils ; indeed it is 

 probable that plants derive these whole supply from air and 

 water. If this is admitted, it follows that no quantity of 

 oil removed from a given area of land in any way tends 

 to impoverish the soil. But the coconut tree cannot make 

 oil without a proportion of other elements that it com- 

 bines; the process requires nitrates, phosphates and alkalies, 

 to complete the operation, and these it must obtain from 

 the soil. Extract the oil and return all the other products of 

 the tree to the soil it occupies, and there will be no diminu- 

 tion of the average yield of oil, as long as the tree lives 

 in health. Increase the supply of nitrates, phosphates' 

 and alkalies iu the soil, and in due proportion tin* tree 

 will produce more oil, while the fertilizers introduced area 

 permaueut gain. 



Replacing Fertility Removed: Poonac as Manure. — The coco- 

 nut planter, who desires to maintain the average crops of his 

 property, will do well to ascertainjthe average of the fertilizing 

 elements removed in a given number of nuts, aud set aside 

 such proportion of the price as will replace them. The sure 

 way is to manufacture his oil on the spot and retain 

 the poonac ; but sometimes it appears more profitable to 

 sell the uuts as they stand than to extract tin- oil and 

 sell it seperately, because the cost of manufacture, with 

 tin primitive apparatus be must employ, is greater than 

 with proper machinery ; but if he knows exactly how 



much nitrate, phosphate aud alkalies are in a candy of 

 cc|iperah,and their prices, he will know how to proceed in his 

 purchase of fertilizers so as to maintain or improve the 

 condition of bis land. There may be better forms of fertil- 

 izer than I'Oouae, but 110 lb. of poonac will as a rule 

 restore all that is carried away iu 1,000 nuts, and, when 

 this quantity can be obtained for R125, there is no cheaper 

 way of giving back what is taken away ; besides it has 

 an advantage over every other form of manure in sup- 

 plying all the elements of the coconut in the exact pro- 

 portions required, while the loss, by putting it through the 

 alimentary apparatus of a cow, is very small. 



Manure Mai!, from the Coconut Field: Manuring Begin Ear- 

 ly — Manure made by cattle fed on the grass of the coconut 

 field adds nothing, to the general fertility of the land; 

 it merely removes it from one place to another ; bu t 

 w hile the plant is youug, and only commands with its 

 roots a small proportion of the space assigned to it, the 

 placing of it within reach of the roots iu this form is 

 of high importance to its rapid growth and early bear- 

 ing. It is not the amount of food thus placed within its 

 reach that limits the good done, the roots are stimulated 

 to push out turther into the soil, and thus acquire a 

 wider feeding-ground. Small doses frequently repeated 

 are far more beneficial than greater quantities at long 

 intervals; and in (very ease, it should be buried under 

 at least two inches of soil. I would recommend, 

 in putting out the plants, to dust a couple hand- 

 fuls of quicklime into and round the hole, and I would 

 give each at the same time 1 lb. of poonac. A good 

 start is half the battle, and what is once gained should 

 never be lost for want of a little stimulant. I cannot 

 expect the tree to yield me an annual revenue of 

 from two to three rupees, unless I use every means in 

 my power to establish its constitution ; and in the whole 

 range of vegetation, I believe, there is no plant that 

 wilt do so much for itself with so little help. I would 

 spend 50 cents per tree, in building it up during the 

 first seven years, after which time, it will give a return, 

 within four years, of three nuts for every 5 cents worth 

 of manure given. There is no piactical limit to the 

 yield : I have known one tree that for a series of years 

 bore 400 nuts ; I saw another a few days ago that was 

 very little behind it, and I have known many individual 

 trees tnat regularly yielded from 200 to S00. In such 

 cases, there is no doubt much in the individuality of the 

 tree, and special suitability of the soil ; but my contention 

 is that any tree that bears a small crop iu auy soil may 

 be made to bear a large one, the only difference being 

 that a good soil gives a good crop without assistance 

 while a poor one gives a poor return, but the one will 

 respond to manure as readily as the other. The same 

 amount of manure will result in the same addition to 

 the crops, whether the trees to which it is administered 

 have previously been bearing ten nuts or fifty per anuum. 

 The weaker tree may appropriate some part of the 

 manure to build up its strength, and, if the soil it 

 occupies be deficient in the capacit3' of retaining mois- 

 ture, it may be unable to appropriate at once the food 

 within its reach, but the manure once in the soil wil 

 tell sooner or later. 



Registei of Treatment by the Coconut Stem : 'Treatment of a 

 Single lret and Result. — The stem of a coconut tree on 

 pee, land forms a complete' register of the periods at 

 which manure has been administered, the effects it pro- 

 duced and the time during which it operated and 

 became exhausted. It contracts under the pressure of 

 want, expands wheu fed liberally, and again contracts 

 when all the food is used up. There was a tree that 

 had stood for twenty five years on sand so poor, that 

 not a blade of vegetation was ever seen within twenty 

 feet of it ; the stem, over one foot in diameter at the 

 surface, gradually diminished upwards, till, at the five 

 feet of height attained, it was less less than four inches 

 and the length of the leaves were about thirty inches. 

 Iu very truth, no more wretched specimen of a still 

 living plant could have been conceived by the mind of 

 man, and it was only for the sake of proving the 

 theory that its treatment was undertaken. Twenty pounds 

 of poonac and live pounds of steamed bones were mixed 

 and sown broadcast in a circle twelve feet in diameter, 



