COCONUT PLANTER'S MANUAL. 121 



it follows thai, the soil midway between the palms will contain more 

 roots, and more feeding extremities, than are to he found in any other 

 position. 



Obviously, therefore, it is this central area of soil midway between 

 two rows of paims wiiich should receive most attention in the shape of 

 cultivation and manuring. On those estates which are kept clean- 

 weeded the whole area of the land is cultivated at frequent intervals with 

 the result thai air is admitted to all portions of the roots and the solu- 

 bility of the mineral plant-food is thereby increased uniformly throughout 

 the estate. But where it is impracticable, owing to the lie of the land 

 or the nature of the soil,' to keep an estate clean-weeded, it is, far more 

 often than not, just that area around the base of each palm, which 

 necessarily contains the fewest root-extremities, which is cultivated and 

 manured. 



In other words air and plant-food are admitted to those portions of 

 the roots which can make least use of them. 



Now no planter should ever make a drastic change in his methods of 

 planting until he has conclusively proved to himself that the change 

 will bo for the better. To those planters, therefore, who are in the 

 habit of cultivating a small circle of land around each palm, the following 

 suggestion is offered : — 



Select a small area, say four rows of palms, on one of your estates. 

 Plough up the land for a width of about eight or ten feet down the 

 middle of each row and carry out all cultivations and apply all the 

 manure to these central strips of land. Compare the crops obtained 

 from the palms around which the soil has been cultivated in circles, and 

 prove to your own satisfaction whether the new system is not better 

 than the old. 



How the Palm Feeds. 

 The coconut palm, like other plants, possesses two sets of organs 

 through which it takes in food, namely, the roots and the leaves. 



Considering first the method by which the roots absorb food, one of 

 the most important points we have to remember is that only those food- 

 stuffs which are dissolved in water can enter the roots of the palm. 

 No solid particles of soil or of manure, no matter how minute they 

 may be, can pGSsibly effect an entrance into the roots. Every atom of 

 food taken up from the soil has first to be dissolved in water before 

 it can be consumed. 



Moreover it must be remembered that water enters the palms 

 through the loots only. Not a single drop of water can possibly find 



