CHAPTER III 



SEED NUTS, ETC. 



Seed Nuts. These should be the produce of 

 healthy heavily -bearing trees, of medium age, i.e. 

 about thirty years; large-sized roundish nuts, 

 ripe but not dry, of a red, brown or green 

 colour, with a thin husk and the three longi- 

 tudinal ridges on the husk not prominent. 



It is an advantage not to plant the seeds for a 

 month or so after they have been picked so that 

 the outer skin may get thoroughly dry and the 

 husk be allowed to harden. 



Nuts selected for seed should be carefully 

 examined to see that they are not damaged in 

 any way. 



The planter cannot exercise too much care 

 in the selection of seed nuts. Weak parents 

 produce offspring with a tendency to weakness, 

 whereas in planting good seed from strong 

 mature good trees, a palm is produced which 

 should prove a robust column of wealth pro- 

 duction for over a hundred years. The nuts 

 give heavy thick-fleshed copra, and the husks 

 full quantities of coir. When gathering for seed, 

 nuts should be lowered from the tree and on no 

 account allowed to drop. A planter as far as 



