9O Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



2,500 acres of land in hemp and coco- 

 nuts, drawn up at the request of the editor 

 by one of the oldest and most successful 

 members of the Davao Planters' Asociation, 

 whose secretary, Mr. Max McCollough, has at 

 times favoured us with his interesting experi- 

 ences of Philippine agricultural industries. 1 



We reproduce some particulars of these esti- 

 mates, so far as the coco-nuts alone are 

 concerned, because in spite of the attraction 

 of rubber, cacao, sea-island cotton, &c., in the 

 Philippines and elsewhere, the " Cult of the 

 Coco-nut," if carried on with system and fore- 

 thought, is capable of proving as reliable and 

 safe an investment as the other crops named, 

 and whilst so many have advocated, and are 

 still actively pushing, these other industries, we 

 hear few advocating coco-nut planting. 



Coming now to the figures contributed by 

 the planters in the Philippines, we learn as 

 follows : 



1 See, for instance, Mr. McCollough's illustrated article 

 on " Manila Hemp," in Tropical Life, June, July and 

 August issues, 1909. Another authority (E. JB. Cope- 

 land, Phil. Joum. of Science, p. 22, January, 1906) does 

 not, apparently, recommend the planting of hemp if it 

 can be avoided, for he says : " It is a very common 

 practice in Mindanao to plant coco-nuts and abaca 

 (Manila hemp or Musa textilis) together in the expecta- 

 tion that the abaca will support the commercial under- 

 taking until the coco-nuts mature .... but the 

 maturing of the former is delayed by probably two 

 years, and the trees are never as robust as those which 

 were better illuminated from the start." 



