Laying-out the Plantation 



199 



used all over the East for betel chewing, and 

 elsewhere for medicinal and toilet purposes, 

 would be quite an item with such numbers of 

 trees as would be required on a plantation of 

 any appreciable size. 



The Kapok tree is a quick grower, and has 

 not much of a crown, which only in exceptional 

 cases would interfere with the foliage of the 



o 



nearest coco-nut trees. The cotton which it 

 yields from a large number of pods is also 

 worth picking, as the demand for it has greatly 

 increased of late, causing the price to advance 

 first to 3^d., then over yd. and now to 5d. 

 per Ib. Long avenues of these trees could be 

 planted, and would produce quite a useful 

 quantity of cotton, probably amounting to 

 several tons in a year. 



The Bamboo, although it will not make a 

 very lasting fence, can make a very useful 

 barrier, and should be always grown when 

 there is room, if only for the thousand and one 

 uses to which it can be put in the daily work- 

 ing of a coco-nut or any other plantation, 

 besides which an avenue or wall of well- 

 planted bamboos is always an ornament and 

 forms an excellent wind-break. 



In many localities pine-apples are grown with 

 profit under the coco-nuts ; it is often a good 

 plan to grow them in rows as boundaries 

 between fields. The pine-apple is not only a 

 wholesome fruit in universal demand as an 

 article of export, but in a fresh state also for the 



