84 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



have the advantage of helping to keep a good 

 supply of trained labour on the place. 



This being so, those who find themselves 

 placed in circumstances where their labour 

 seems restless and discontented, might 

 remember this, much as they may otherwise 

 be prejudiced against catch crops. 



Dean Worcester speaks very optimistically 

 of coco-nuts in the Philippines. " After fifteen 

 years of observation on the ground in the 

 Philippines," he starts his pamphlet, 4< I have 

 reached the conclusion that no branch of 

 agriculture there offers such certainty of steady 

 and assured returns for comparatively small 

 investments as does the growing of coco-nuts, 

 which may be raised to advantage as far north 

 as Pangasinan, La Union, and South and 

 North Ilocas, whilst they flourish in the 

 Southern Philippines to a degree nowhere 

 excelled and seldom equalled in other countries." 

 This same authority speaks strongly of the 

 slovenly, untidy, over-crowded state of the 

 Philippine groves. As a rule, little effort is 

 made, we are told, to keep the ground under 

 the trees free from brush after the palms reach 

 the producing age, and it is by no means 

 unusual to find forest trees competing success- 

 fully with the palms for light and air. It is 

 seldom that effective means are taken to check 

 the depredations of fruit-bats, crows, and 

 monkeys, or to disturb the rats which not 

 infrequently nest at the base of the leaves and 



