64 MOZAMBIQUE 



along these lines, the average yield in the 

 Quelimane district with trees in full bearing 

 may be put down at not more than twenty-five 

 cocoanuts per annum per tree. A margin over 

 this must be allowed for nuts consumed locally, 

 but as this would appear both on the debit and 

 credit side of the present calculation it may be 

 disregarded. It is a low yield, but for the pur- 

 pose of computing the number of trees that have 

 reached bearing age, which includes unpro- 

 ductive trees and those not yet in full bearing, 

 w^e cannot reckon upon a general average of 

 more than fifteen. We next have to consider 

 the number of nuts that go to make one kilo 

 of copra. 



Besides being a factor in the calculation, 

 this determination will give an idea of the 

 quality of the nuts. Here, fortunately, actual 

 records can be quoted, not over a large number 

 of plantations for several years, as we ought to 

 have to enable us to arrive at a mean value, 

 but yet sufficient to make it unnecessary to 

 rely altogether upon estimates which, however 

 carefully prepared, can never have anything 

 like the value of actual records. The manager 

 of a plantation informed me that in one con- 

 signment of his 187 bags containing 8,356 kilos 

 of copra were the product of 57,840 nuts, which 



