COCONUT PLANTER'S MANUAL. 79 



can possibly lodge; in this way they grow well. Drains should be cut 

 where found necessary. I am doubtful if it is advisable to drain and 

 plant in really swampy land and old paddy fields; the cost is great to 

 do it thoroughly, and the results doubtful, in my opinion. 



Treatment or the Plants for the First Five Years. — The practices 

 are many, from permitting the jungle to grow up for a 'ew years and then 

 cutting it down, then cleanweeding the whole surface. The latter is 

 rare except where grown with cocoa or tea. The accepted method is 

 to allow the grass to grow, keeping down weeds and jungle growth, and 

 keeping a radius of from three to four feet round the plants clean weeded. 

 I think if in Ihe second year this radius were increased to six feet, it 

 would bring on the plants much faster. I have in my mind's eye several 

 patches up to ten acres, which wore kept clean-weeded from the time 

 of planting till the fifth year ; now that the trees are ten to fifteen years 

 old they show a growth of quite five years over the others planted at 

 the same time, but having only a radius of three or four feet kept 

 clean round each plant; they also came into bearing four to five years 

 before the others. I should mention that the ground was not exposed 

 to the full force of the sun, as cocoa in one instance and Liberian coffee 

 in others wers grown for four years. If catch crops like cotton or mani- 

 hot were grown with the coconuts for four years, necessitating the 

 ground being kept clean, I am convinced it would pay well to do it. 



Ploughing. — Where the soil is light and free, ploughing could be 

 done with benefit in alternate years, after the trees have attained their 

 eighth year; but where soils are stiff and they are in the majority in 

 some districts, we have neither the ploughing nor the cattle capable of 

 doing the work effectually. The only other way to loosen the soil is to, 

 say once in three years, dig it over about six inches deep with mamoties, 

 burying all grass and weeds in the process; and where the soil is de- 

 ficient in it, scattering broadcast about a ton of freshly-slaked lime per 

 acre. If at the same time, the seeds of some nitrogen collecting plants 

 were sown, it would materially lessen the cost of the work, as so much 

 nitrogen would be added to the soil when the plants were cut down and 

 buried. When a steam digger comes to be placed upon the market it 

 will be a boon to Coconut Planters. 



Propping. — This is an absolutely necessary work, from the time 

 the tree begins to bear till the 15th or 20th year, according to the 

 nature of the soil. Each bunch needing it is propped up with a forked 

 stick finely pointed; the forked position is inserted between the nuts 

 till it catches the fruit stalk. It is then slightly raised, so that the 

 weight is partly lifted from the fruit stalk, and the sharp point in- 

 serted into the stem of the tree, the weight of the bunch keeping 

 it in position. Why it should be necessary to support the fruit of the 



