34 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



loams, and others sandy soils varying in 

 colour from a red sand to the white cinnamon 

 garden sand, called by the Singalese ' maradan 

 vella.' 



" As regards planting, the usual method is 

 to cut holes of 3 ft. cube, or of other dimen- 

 sions, according to individual idiosyncrasies. 

 At the bottom of these holes a little surface 

 soil is thrown in, and on this the plants are 

 placed. There are objections to this general 

 system. In wet weather the holes get filled 

 up with water, and if the wet weather be con- 

 tinuous, the plants get drowned. A second 

 and greater objection is that the soil round 

 the plants cannot be tilled by being loosened 

 with mamoties, so as to give the plants a good 

 start, as the roots are below the reach of 

 cultivation till trunks are formed. 



" The system I adopted, when I took to 

 coco-nut cultivation thirty years ago, was to 

 cut holes 3 ft. cube, and to fill them with 

 the surface soil cut from their sides to within 

 one foot of the surface. By this means the 

 holes become saucer-shaped, and are about 

 5 ft. in diameter. Cultivation can, by this 

 system, commence almost immediately after 

 planting, and can be continued in an increasing 

 circle with the growth of the plants and the 

 spread of the roots. I w r as very gratified to 

 find there was one other who followed this 

 system, viz., Mudaliyar A. E. Rajapakse, on 

 his Eheta estate, through which the Negombo 



