INTRODUCTION. 



A MONG the planters of an older generation, who specialised in 

 **■ •*■ Coconut Cultivation, and whose expeiuence has contributed to 

 our present knowledge, were the late Messrs. R. Davidson, W. B- 

 Lamont, W. -Jardine and W. H. Wright, followed by the late 

 Messrs. G. T. Nicholas and F. Beven, and among those still living 

 Messrs, J. D. Vanderstraaten and A. W. Beven — all of whom have 

 written useful papers on the subject, a few of which are reproduced 

 in the present edition. Some of the papers — and particularly those by 

 the Government Agricultural Chemist and the Chemical Adviser to the 

 Colombo Commercial Company, Ltd. — are specially valuable and autho- 

 ritative ; and one is hardly prepared to add to or take away from what 

 they, as experts, have to tell us on the subject, especially of Tillage and 

 Manuring. The Department of Agriculture, too, is every year adding 

 to our knowledge of the Coconut Palm and its requirements. To the 

 Government Mycologist and Entomologist we are indebted for the 

 papers dealing with Pests and Diseases. As the work of the Agri- 

 cultural Department progresses with the ca-operation of an intelligent 

 body of Coconut Planters, there is a prospect of a considerable 

 accession of knowledge not only about cultural details, but also about 

 such matters as seed selection, with a view to increasing the produc- 

 tiveness of the palm as well as improving the quality of individual 

 nuts. When it is realised how much science has done, and is 

 doing, for such crops as tea and rubber, we are led to hope for great 

 things from our experts in Agriculture, Chemistry and Biology when 

 they are freer to concentrate on what is often grandiloquently 

 referred to as "the Consols of the East ", but which, in respect of 

 scientific investigation, has been the Cinderella among tropical 

 industries. But we have reason to believe, from recent dis- 

 cussions in Committees of the Board of Agriculture, that the Coconut 

 Palm is soon likely to come by its own. 



