COCOAXUT-PLANTING 69 



of supporting the tree and conveying the plant- 

 food collected by the distant feeders. 



Hilling up with earth scraped from towards the 

 centre of the row round the base of the tree 

 denudes the surface of soil at the very place where 

 it is most required. When, therefore, there is not 

 sufficient available labour to clean the whole 

 surface, a strip down the middle of the rows 

 should be cultivated in the case of big trees. 



Touching this question of available labour it 

 would seem that with some prazos too much is 

 being attempted. There is a natural and a com- 

 mendable desire to be able to quote large figures, 

 but at the same time it is better to have fifty 

 thousand trees under good cultivation than a 

 hundred thousand neglected. If by good culti- 

 vation we can make our trees yield thirty nuts 

 as against fifteen from neglected trees, then for a 

 given quantity of copra produced we have only 

 half the cultivating expenses to meet. Neglected 

 plantations are exposed to fire and to a large 

 mortality among young trees, entailing the ex- 

 pense of replacing. 



The chief impression derived from a study of 

 the cocoanut-planting industry of Quelimane is 

 that a lot of land has been put under cocoanuts 

 which is not cocoanut land. Cocoanuts will not 

 grow in swamps, yet hundreds of hectares of 



