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In temperate regions, the exigencies of climate exact that this be done 

 with discretion and care, in order that the unduly stimulated growths 

 may be fully ripened and matured against the approach of an inclement 

 season. In the Tropics no such limitations exist, and the early growth of 

 the tree may be profitably stimulated to the highest pitch. That this 

 general treatment, as applied to young fruit trees, is specifically the one 

 indicated in the early life of the cocoanut, may be quickly learned by him 

 who will observe the avidity with which the fleshy roots of a young cocoa- 

 nut will invade, embrace, and disintegrate a piece of stable manure. 



Notwithstanding lack of chemical analysis, we may not question the 

 fact that considerable supplies of both potash and phosphoric acid are 

 withdrawn in the building up of leaf and stem; but these are found in 

 sufficient quantity in soils of average quality to meet the early require- 

 ments of the plant. It is only when the fruiting age is reached that de- 

 mands are made, especially upon the potash, which the planter is called 

 upon to make good. 



Good cultivation, the application of a generous supply of stimulating 

 nitrogen during its early career, and the gradual substitution in later life 

 of manures in which potash and phosphoric acid, particularly the former, 

 predominate, are necessary. 



How, then, may we best apply the nitrogen requirements of its early 

 life? Undoubtedly through the application of abundant supplies of 

 stable manures, press cakes, tankage, or of such fertilizers as furnish 

 nitrogen in combination with the large volume of humus necessary to 

 minister to the gross appetite of the plant under consideration. But the 

 chances are that none of these are available, and the planter must have 

 recourse to some of the green, nitrogen-gathering manures that are always 

 at his command. 



He must sow and plow under crops of pease, beans, or other legumes 

 that will furnish both humus and nitrogen in excess of what they remove. 

 Incidentally, they will draw heavily upon the potash deposits of the soil, 

 and they must all be turned back, or, if fed, every kilo of the resulting 

 manure must be scrupulously returned. He must pay for the cultivation 

 of the land, for the growing of crops that he turns back as manure (and 

 that involves further expense for their growing and plowing under), and, 

 in addition, he must be subject to such outlay for about seven years be- 

 fore he can begin to realize for the time and labor expended. 



But there are expedients to which the planter may have recourse which, 

 if utilized, may return every dollar of cultural outlay. By the use of a 

 wise rotation he can not only maintain his land in a good productive con- 

 dition but realize a good biennial crop that will keep the plantation from 

 being a financial drag. The rotation that occurs to me as most promising 

 on the average cocoanut lands of these Islands would be, first, a green 

 manure crop, followed by corn and legumes, succeeded by cotton, and then 

 back to green manures. 



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