COCONUT PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



145 



else (including poonac) be returned to the soil, 

 maintained and there is a gradual decline : — 



But even here crops are not 



It is therefore obvious that if we expect the Ian 1 to continue to give 

 good yield?, something must be added to it in the share of manure. 



Of all manures cattle manure and wood ashes are the best if they are 

 available in sufficient quantities. But as they are not, they have to be 

 supplemented with artificial manures. There are some who are averse to 

 the application of artificial manures on sentimental grounds. But the 

 manures largely used in manuring coconuts are not artificial. Castor cake, 

 fish refuse, bones, etc., are products of the soil and there could not be any 

 harm in returning them to the soil to fertilize it. Although manuring, 

 beyond all doubt, yields improved results, it has been ascertained by long 

 experience that these results can be further improved upon by judicious 

 cultivation. The old practice was to cultivate once in two years just after 

 the rainy season during which manuring was done. But cultivation is so 

 beneficial that former advocates of the two years' system now favour annual 

 cultivation. The results of the cultivation experiment? at Alexandra Estate 

 show that given the same quantity of manure, the improvemsnt is directly 

 proportional to the amount of cultivation, the gradient of improvement with 

 each degree of cultivation being very evident : — 



Plot. 



3 I 7 



But cultivation, like all good things, can be overdone as witnessed in 

 the intensive cultivation boom. During the intensive cultivation craze an 



