i 4 4 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



which may be stored in its neighbourhood, will destroy that 

 in like manner. 



One willing labourer can perform in one day, of six hours, 

 all the work of gathering, carrying together, peeling, and break- 

 ing four hundred cocoa-nuts ; and as they are ripe at all times 

 of the year, there is no season of enforced idleness, but the 

 work may go on continuously. 



Along the margin of the sea, in a bed of little else than 

 coraline sand, the cocoa-nut tree grows to perfection ; on the 

 uplands also, as long as it is within the influence of the sea- 

 breeze, it produces only a little less prolifically. Each tree in 

 full bearing should produce about one hundred nuts per 

 annum : about six thousand nuts make one ton of copra. The 

 same number of nuts yield one ton and a fraction of fibre. 

 The average number of trees to an acre is eighty, and 

 they should be planted about 25 to 35 feet apart, 

 according to the quality of the soil, exposure to wind, or the 

 rainfall of the district. The trees commence to bear at five 

 years old, if well attended to, and should be in full bearing 

 from the seventh to the tenth year. Taking, therefore, the 

 yield of nuts at six thousand per acre, the copra and fibre 

 together should give a good annual return. At present a great 

 deal of the valuable fibre is simply thrown away. Copra is 

 worth from 13 to 16 per ton in London, and a trifle more 

 in Hamburg, while good cocoa-nut fibre fetches an equal sum. 

 From copra is made the celebrated lubricator, cocoa-nut oil, 

 while its refuse goes to enrich cattle food. Nuts can be pur- 

 chased from the natives at about 20s. per thousand. In 

 1880 over 16,000 acres were under cocoa-nut cultivation. If 

 proper machinery for manipulating the fibre were introduced, 

 the present annual loss to the colony of something like 50,000 

 would be saved. The foregoing facts speak for themselves, and 



