COCONUT PLANTER'S MANUAL* 1 03 



In countries where fruit growing forms a regular industry cultiva- 

 tion of the fruit orchards is as much a matter of course as the plough- 

 ing of fields is to the farmer who grows crops of wheat and rice, or the 

 planter who cultivates tobacco and cotton. In growing coconuts, or any- 

 other crop, the object is to obtain the greatest profit per acre. Thig 

 means that the crop must be increased to the point at which a further 

 increase costs more to produce than the extra crop fetches in the 

 market. The main question then is, by what means can we increase 

 our coconut crop. 



Probably the first answer to this question that would occur to most 

 people is "By the application of manure," and that is indeed an im- 

 portant means of increasing the ciop. If manure be applied to any 

 land it will increase the growth of whatever crop is on that land, and if 

 thero be several crops the benefit of the manure will be split up amongst 

 them, those benefitting most whose roots come most completely into 

 contact with it. This is a simple and common sense argument, and yet 

 it is one which is very generally lost sight of, and manure is often 

 applied in such a manner that the crop which it is intended to benefit 

 is the very lasc which it reaches. Consideration of this brings us to a 

 second very important operation which is itself a means of increasing 

 our crop, and tnat is cultivation or tillage of the soil. It cannot be too 

 much insisted on that manuring can only be carried out profitably if 

 it is accompanied by cultivation. 



The need for cultivation is, as has been already mentioned, particu- 

 larly pressing in the coconut planting districts which are, for the mot>t 

 part, liable to long periods of drought, and where the soil is by nature 

 unretentive of moisture. For the conservation of soil moisture is one of 

 the chief aims of systematic cultivation, and the fact that tho coconut 

 tree needs abundance of moisture is seen by the heavy crops carried 

 by trees whose roots have penetrated to the neighbourhood of wells. 

 Such trees often shew a remarkable contrast to their neighbours whose 

 roots do not extend so far, and tho difference is entirely due to their 

 best supply of moisture. 



The Importance of Soil Moisture. 

 In spite oi the heavy damage and loss of money often caused *3 

 coconut estates by drought the very great importance of the effect of 

 the moisture ir the soil on the crop is not generally recognised. Th,s 

 is partly due to the widespread root-systems which the trees possess, 

 enabling them to draw moisture from a wide area and from great depths 

 and to continue to live, although perhaps not to flourish, when the 

 land appears everywhere dry and parched and when shallow-rooted plants 

 like grass have long since died. But when we consider that not only 

 can the roots absorb no food unless this food is dissolved in water, bu; 



