COCONUT CULTURE. 



INTRODUCTION. 



As the third most important crop in tlie Philippine Islands the 

 coconut deserves more and better attention from the planter than it now 

 receives. It is safe to say that our production of copra could be aug- 

 mented by one-third without increasing the crop area if the present 

 cultural methods were duly improved; this means that some five million 

 pesos are lost every year through carelessness and bad practice. To 

 assist the planter in avoiding some of the common mistakes and hence 

 to increase the profits of this crop the following recommendations are 

 offered. 



SEED. 



In the selection of the seed for the nursery three points must be borne 

 in mind : first, the seeds should be taken only from such trees in the 

 plantation as are known to bear well and regularly and to be of the 

 very best variety ; second, the nuts should be completely matured ; third, 

 the nuts should be so picked as to avoid the danger of cracking the shell 

 or injuring the embryo, or "eye." It is not necessarily the tree which 

 happens to have the most fruits at the moment, but the one which 

 always has a large number of bunches in various stages of growth that 

 should be selected for propagation; in this respect there is a greater 

 amount of individuality in coconut trees than is generally believed. 

 The ripe bunch of seed nuts should be lowered to the ground with a 

 cord instead of allowing them to fall. One or two at the tip of the 

 bunch are usually unfit for seed. A roimdish nut is preferable to an 

 oblong one. The largest nuts do not always contain the most "meat." 

 In short, then, the planter should be as cautious in selecting his seed 

 as he would be in choosing animals for breeding purposes. 



There are two or three distinct varieties of coconuts cultivated — 

 usually intermingled — on most of the plantations. Several others occur 

 here and there about the Islands. Each estate should have a few trees 

 of every variety procurable growing in t sort of experimental field where 

 the comparative merits of each kind can be studied. 



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