Planting in the Philippines 85 



help themselves to the fruit. 1 In spite of all 

 these drawbacks, the Philippine exports in 

 1909, apart from its heavy local consumption, 

 place the islands easily first of all centres as 

 a producer of coco-nut products. During 1909 

 some 232,728,116 Ib. of copra and 364,788 

 gallons of oil were exported. The output 

 would be, however, very much larger if the 

 estates were kept cleaner. Not only are the 

 nuts lost in the bush and scrub left standing, 

 but the accumulations of rubbish and decaying 

 vegetation harbour beetles, especially the black 

 borer (Oryctes rhinoceros}. Leaving dead wood 

 about also attracts white ants, which give much 

 trouble where all the jungle has not yet been 

 removed, or is allowed to come up again. 

 Wild pigs also give much trouble, to such an 

 extent at times that fencing has to be resorted 

 to. Here again, however, with a clean estate, 

 and the surrounding lands free of jungle, the 

 nuisance can be abated and finally disposed of. 

 Mr. O. W. Barrett gives very good advice to 

 those thinking of planting coco-nuts in the 

 Philippines, with regard to the compost heap, 

 as did Dr. Alford Nicholls, of Dominica, in 



1 Talking of rats, to show how these animals swarm in 

 agricultural centres, we would call the reader's attention 

 to a report in the Malay Mail that fishermen in the dusk, 

 seeing what they believed to be a shoal of fish, cast their 

 nets and dragged them on board only to find them full 

 of rats. They had apparently struck a migration of 

 these rodents leaving one island for another in search of 

 food. 



