810 



COCONUT 



COCONUT 



also responsible for its crossing the Pacific. It was a 

 cultivated plant in Polynesia and Malaya, and in 

 many places the chief crop, at the time of the discov- 

 ery of this part of the world by Europeans. But it 

 reached Ceylon recently enough so that its introduc- 

 tion is a matter of fairly reliable legend. It is now 

 grown in all tropical countries except the interior of 

 continents. Its cultivation extends somewhat beyond 

 the tropics, both north and south, but its growth at 

 these extremes, in Florida, India and Madagascar, is 

 not thrifty enough to give it any industrial impor- 

 tance. Within the last two decades, the rise in the price 

 of oils and the discovery of new uses for coconut-oil 

 have caused a tremendous increase in the area devoted 

 to the plantation and cultivation of coconuts. 



Climatic conditions favorable for the coconut. 



The coconut makes on the climate the characteristic 

 demands of a typically tropical plant. It thrives where 

 the mean annual temperature is 72 F. or higher, and 

 where there are no great differences in temperature 

 between seasons. Except where supply of ground water 



1011. End of a mature coconut. The nut sprouts usually 

 from the largest eye. 



makes it independent of local rainfall, the coconut 

 demands an annual rainfall of at least one meter (about 

 40 in.) ; and this precipitation should be well distributed 

 through the year. In most of the best coconut coun- 

 tries, the rainfall is considerably more than one meter. 

 The coconut can endure exceedingly drying conditions 

 for short periods, and is accordingly adapted to the 

 intense light of the seashore, to resisting strong winds, 

 and to enduring salt water about its roots for short 

 periods of time. Moreover, it will live through pro- 

 longed droughts. But long dry seasons cut down the 

 crops; and the damage done by droughts lasts for as 

 much as two or three years after the return of rain. A 

 dry season of five or six months every other year will 

 keep the crop at all times down to not more than 40 per 

 cent of what it would be if the supply of water were 

 constant. If there is an ample supply of soil-water, 

 dryness of the atmosphere is favorable to the best 

 production. Seacoasts usually have higher land back of 

 them, and the ground-water from the higher country 

 circulates through the soil toward the sea. Near the 

 shore it comes near enough to the surface to be 

 reached by the roots of the coconut. For this reason, 

 coconuts thrive on the seashore under climatic condi- 

 tions that prevent good development in the interior. 

 This is the principal ground for the idea that coconuts 

 thrive only near the sea. Around the bases of volca- 

 noes in the interior, .similar soil conditions are met 

 with, and such localities are admirably adapted to this 

 crop. 



Propagation and cultivation. 



The coconut is produced only by seed. Nuts for this 

 purpose should of course be selected from conspicuously 

 good trees. They are usually planted in seed-beds, 

 although, on a small scale, there are various other 

 local methods of handling them during germination. 

 The best treatment is to take them from the seed-bed 

 when the plumule is not more than 6 inches high, which 

 will usually be after about six months. To avoid the 

 expense of keeping the groves clean while the trees are 

 small, it is common practice to leave the nuts for a 

 longer time in the seed-beds, but the transplanting of 

 older seedlings, even with the greatest practicable care, 

 sets them back for several months. In the Jaffna dis- 

 trict of northern Ceylon, the nuts are transplanted 

 from the first seed-beds to others in which they have 

 more room, and are not put in their permanent places 

 until they are three or four years old. 



In the first years after the coconuts are transplanted, 

 it is good policy to raise catch-crops between the trees. 

 But these crops should be so chosen that they will not 

 compete with the coconut for light or water; and from 

 the profit they pay, a return should be made to the 

 soil of fertilizers at least sufficient to replace what they 

 have removed. By the time the grove is four years old, 

 the coconuts will shade the ground and it will no longer 

 be possible to raise catch-crops on a large scale. Then, 

 but not before this time, it is good practice to use the 

 grove for pasture. The returns from live-stock should 

 be at least sufficient to pay for keeping the plantation 

 in good condition and cattle will themselves do a large 

 part of the work in keeping down the other vegetation. 

 Pasturing of other live-stock in coconut groves is in 

 general not to be recommended. It is not customary 

 anywhere in the tropics to give to coconut plantations 

 such cultivation as is given to orchards in temperate 

 countries. It has even been believed that any but -the 

 most shallow cultivation would be detrimental by 

 destroying the roots near the surface, and that machine- 

 cultivation was likely to be too expensive to be profit- 

 able, in view of the time that it would have to be kept 

 up before the coconut begins to pay returns. Limited 

 experience in the Philippines indicates that real culti- 

 vation produces very much the same results with 

 coconuts as it does with other crops. Coconuts respond, 

 as do other crops, to the application of manures con- 

 taining potash, nitrogen, and phosphorus. So far as 

 the very limited evidence shows, the demand for these 

 three fertilizing elements is in the order given. With 

 ordinarily good treatment, coconuts come into bearing 

 in seven or eight years. Single trees of standard varie- 

 ties will bear fruit in five years, while others will require 

 ten. If the coconut is treated as a wild crop, which is 

 by no means uncommon, and little or no attention is 

 given it after the first three years, it will be ten or fifteen 

 years, as a rule, before a full crop is produced and even 

 then the crop will be an inferior one. 



Pests. 



With the increase in the industry in the tropical 

 world, and with the increase in commerce, there have 

 been created conditions favorable to the development 

 and spread of pests. Twenty years ago, serious coconut 

 pests were practically unknown, and only eight years 

 ago, Prudhomme, in an excellent general treatment of 

 the coconut industry, listed as serious pests only two or 

 three insects and no other organisms. There are now 

 known as serious pests various species of Rhynchoph- 

 orus, known as palm weevils; Oryctes, called the 

 rhinoceros beetle; a scale, Aspidiotus destructor, closely 

 related to the San Jos6 scale; at least two fungi, 

 and the organisms causing bud-rot. The latter have 

 been determined in the West Indies to be Bacillus 

 Coli, and in India to be a fungus, Pythium palmivorum. 

 Besides these, there are a large number of minor or 

 local pests, including weevils and other beetles, the 



