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intervening lands (except immediately about the trees) to run to weeds 

 or jungle. 



In the Philippines the native planter has not yet progressed beyond the 

 pit stage, nor do his subsequent cultural activities include more than the 

 occasional "boloing" of such weeds as threaten to choke and exterminate 

 the young plants. 



Fortunately it will not be long till the force and influence of example 

 are sure to be felt by our own planters. The progressive German colonist 

 of Kamerun, German East Africa, and the South Pacific Islands, as well 

 as the French in Congo and Madagascar, are vigorously practicing con- 

 ventional, modern orchard methods in the treatment of their cocoanut 

 groves, and it is amazing to read of discussions between Ceylon and 

 Indian nut growers as to the best method of tethering cattle upon cocoa- 

 nut palms in pasture, so as to obtain the most benefit from their excreta. 



With an intelligent study of the plant and its characteristics it is 

 believed that our native planter may put into practical use the knowledge 

 that the veteran Indian planter has in fifty years failed to learn or utilize. 

 He will learn that in time the entire superficies of his orchard will be 

 required by the wide-spreading, surface-feeding roots of the trees, and 

 that pasture crops of any kind, grown for any purpose other than soiling 

 or for green manuring, are prejudicial to future success. He will know 

 that the initial preparation of ail of his orchard and its continuous main- 

 tenance in good cultivation are essential not only to the future welfare 

 of his trees but as a necessary means in connection with a judicious inter- 

 mediate crop rotation. 



Hence the preparatory requirements may be summed up as such pre- 

 liminary soil breaking as would be required for a corn crop in similar 

 lands, succeeded by such superficial plowings and cultivations as would 

 be required to raise a cotton or any other of the so-called hoed crops. 



SEED SELECTION. 



Preliminary to planting the very important question of seed selection 

 calls for close scrutiny on the planter's part. 



The small native planter is often familiar with the individual charac- 

 teristics of his trees. Owners of small estates in Cuyos and about Zam- 

 boanga have pointed out to me trees that have the constant fruiting habit 

 confirmed, others that will fruit erratically, and others that flower yet 

 rarely bear fruit. The fruitfulness of the first class is undoubtedly a 

 result of accidental heredity, for the planter has in the past made no 

 selection except by chance, nor is the characteristic in any way due to his 

 cultural system, which consists in planting the nut and letting nature 

 and heredity do the rest. One tree in Zamboanga, the owner assured me, 

 had never produced less than 200 nuts annually for fully twenty-three 

 years. Asked as to the bearing of all of his trees (of which he owned 

 6500 2 



