34 PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURE 



Tobacco is a plant which can well use all the light 

 possible while it is young, but when it is older ought to 

 be shaded to produce the finest leaves. It is the only 

 plant on which light has any possible bad effect, except 

 that of causing too great loss of water. 



Distance between Plants. The distance by which plants 

 ought to be separated is determined by their need of light. 

 If placed too near together, the individual plants receive 

 too little light, and usually grow tall and slender, and pro- 

 duce little or no fruit. A hektar of land will produce 

 more fruit with a proper number of plants than with too 

 many ; so the added plants are worse than useless. 



The influence of light on the production of fruit is 

 illustrated by the coconuts at San Ramon, the govern- 

 ment farm near Zamboanga. Trees in a dense grove 

 bore less than 8 nuts in three months ; in a more open 

 grove, less than 11 ; in a double row along a road, 22; 

 in a single row by a slough, 27; and a large tree stand- 

 ing alone bore 55. This is at the rate of 220 nuts a year 

 for the solitary tree, probably 10 times as many as for 

 the trees in the denser grove. 



At La Carlota, in Negros, 25,000 plants of purple cane 

 on one hektar of land produced 6 picos more of sugar 

 than did 30,000 plants on an equal area. 



Weeds. Of course, anything which robs plants of light 

 is very injurious. One of the ways in which weeds injure 

 crops, in addition to taking a part of their food from the 

 soil, is by taking a part of their light. There are no 

 weeds in a good garden, and not many on a good farm. 



