254 TRINIDAD. 



The cultivation of the coco-palm evidently suits our people, as 

 it requires little labour and attention. There are many varieties 

 of the coco-palm, some giving rather small nuts, others very 

 large ones ; some more robust, others more delicate. The larger 

 nuts are naturally preferred by the buyer, and sell more readily. 

 I would advise those who wish to engage in the cultivation of the 

 coco-palm to select the best varieties, and avoid the indiscrimi- 

 nate planting of indifferent kinds. We may estimate at 250,000 

 the number of trees existing in the island; in 1881 we exported 

 4,227,276 nuts, worth £13,278. 



There exist in Pulo Pinang, Ceylon, and other places in the 

 East, fine coco-palm plantations, or, as they are termed here, 

 coco- walks. These are formed, according to S. Itier, in the 

 following manner : the nuts required for plants are selected from 

 healthy full-grown trees ; they are laid in the ground in a shaded 

 place, and barely covered with fine earth : as soon as the leaves 

 become pinnated and the roots begin to appear out of the husk, 

 they are removed and planted at intervals of from 33 to 40 

 feet. The young trees are manured with stale fish, guano, or 

 compost containing a certain proportion of salt. On the coast of 

 Coromandel, they place a handful of salt in each hole. In the 

 best localities, the coco-tree begins to bear at between six and 

 seven years' growth ; and it is calculated that each tree yields 

 annually eighty nuts, which generally sell at the rate of 1 dol. 50 c. 

 per hundred on an average : 5,000 trees would therefore give 

 400,000 nuts, yielding about 13,700 gallons of oil, or at the 

 rate of one gallon for thirty nuts, each tree yielding three gallons. 

 The price being 42 cents per gallon, each tree would then give a 

 gross revenue of 1 dollar 26 c, or a net return of 84 cents per 

 annum, allowing 33 per cent, for expenses. The chief enemy of 

 the coco-tree is a species of coleoptera, which fixes its abode at 

 the base of the leaves, and, by degrees, penetrates into the 

 central bud and the very heart of the palm. If not promptly 

 removed, the tree soon withers and dies. So destructive wei 

 the ravages of this insect at Singapore, that the inhabitants wc 

 thereby compelled to abandon the cultivation of the coco-pal 

 It is destroyed either by using an iron rod, hooked at 

 extremity, and by which the hole bored by the insect is thorougl 

 probed, or by pouring a strong solution of salt into the tuft 

 leaves. 



