12 



be planted without much danger close to salt-water lagoons (especially 

 if low earth dikes are thrown up along the margin of the lagoon, or 

 estero, to hold back the highest tides) ; but it should be remembered that 

 in a country having a comparatively heavy rainfall there is a constant 

 movement of water through the soil toward the sea, so that the roots of 

 trees growing close to salt water, and extending much below the level 

 of the sea, are really within the fresh-water zone. 



HARVESTING. 



Depending largely upon the degree of cultivation given the young 

 plants the production of nuts should begin anywhere between the fourth 

 and tenth year from transplanting. In good alluvial soil a well-grown 

 coconut should begin to flower during its fourth or fifth year (and 

 cases are reported of ripe fruit being gathered in the fourth year) ; 

 however, with the poisoning effect of cogon roots and diflBculties in 

 the line of soil ventilation the average bearing age of Philippine trees 

 is probably not less than eight years, and in many estates no paying crop 

 is gathered before the Uvelfth year. 



Fertilizers both natural and artificial will, of course, hasten the bear- 

 ing age, and careful attention to cultural operations will have the same 

 desirable result. Unfortunately the average plantation in the principal 

 coconut districts of the Philippines is so closely planted and so ill at- 

 tended that not only is the economic stage of the plantations very 

 materially delayed, but even before the trees have attained to normal size 

 and productiveness each tree has begim to suffer severely by the encroach- 

 ment of the roots of the surrounding trees into its own area as well as 

 by the overshading injury from the leaves of contiguous crowns. The 

 nimiber of unproductive trees in average Philippine plantations is de- 

 plorably and quite unreasonably large. 



In the case of young trees having crowns not more than 5 meters above 

 the ground it is permissible to use the curved knife on a bamboo pole 

 for picking the ripe nuts; the principal objections to this method are: 

 First, it is sometimes difficult to judge of the maturity of the bunch when 

 standing on the ground (especially in the case of the so-called "red va- 

 riety") ; and second, because the distal two or three nuts of the cluster 

 are usually not sufficiently ripe when the others are ready for picking. 

 Hence, the better plan is for an experienced laborer to pick the nuts; 

 i. e., to ascend to the crowTi and remove only thoroughly matured nuts 

 from the usual two to four bunches ready for picking. From six to 

 ten weeks may elapse between pickings, depending upon the weather, 

 etc. 



The loss through the picking of unripe nuts probably amounts, in the 

 Philippines, to many thousand pesos annually ; the copra from such nuts 

 can not be readily dried, and, in fact, the "meat" of such nuts does not 



