98 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



the production is reduced. Another fact that 

 we have called attention to is mentioned, viz., in 

 order to obtain the maximum amount of nuts 

 from each tree it has been found necessary 

 to uard against the branches of some trees 



o o 



touching or overlapping those of the other 

 trees. This prevents the free circulation of 

 wind through the palms. The continual move- 

 ment of the branches of the coco-palm is 

 absolutely necessary to its normal functions. 



What the writer of the Davao article con- 

 siders to be a conservative estimate places the 

 cost of cultivating the 2,500 acres at $33 

 (American) per acre. This includes cost of 

 land ; warehouses, men's quarters, animals, 

 farm implements, tools, wire fence, hemp plants, 

 salaries, wages, &c. Details of expenditure 

 are given year by year. In them we note the 

 following : Cost of land, $2 (8s. 4d.) an acre ; 

 cost of clearing and cultivating, $20 (835. 40!.) 

 an acre; cost of coco-nut plants, $20 per 1,000 ; 

 1,000 Manila hemp plants go to the hectare, or 

 400 to the acre ; cost of caraboes, or water- 

 buffalos, $30 each. At the end of the second 

 year the 300,000 hemp plants, laid down at the 

 start, are calculated to give 2 Ib. fibre per stalk. 

 Some give down to only \\ Ib., but at 2 Ib. we 

 get 600,000 Ib., or 436 piculs (picul = 1 331 Ib.), 

 worth $11.50 per picul ='$5,014; less cost of 

 stripping, drying, baling, &c., $4.50 per picul, 

 leaves $3,052 net profit. The third year these 

 300,000 plants are reckoned to give $25,081 



