2io Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



chance of the fires getting beyond control. 

 In any case, men should be first sent in front 

 to clean a circular space round the boles of 

 the trees with hoes, leaving a circle some 

 6 ft. in diameter for the young trees quite 

 clean and free from herbage. The diameter 

 of these circles must be gradually widened 

 as the trees increase in size, and may go up 

 to 7 ft. or 8 ft. across. The weeding in each 

 case is best done by the men working with 

 their faces to the trunk, so that the weeds are 

 worked to the outer edge of the circle ; they 

 can then be dragged through the outside 

 growth to the heaps and burnt in small lots, 

 without fear of harming the trees (on the con- 

 trary, the resultant smoke often suffocates 

 insects or disturbs them, so that they can be 

 caught and killed), or left on the ground as 

 a mulch so long as it does not serve as a 

 nesting place for pests, and so become trouble- 

 some. Upon the clear space, the edge of 

 which can easily be raised to keep in the 

 water, is done the watering and manuring, 

 and at the commencement the shading of the 

 roots of the tree by empty husks, &c., or other 

 mulch that you may have available. 



The question of labour is always attended 

 with more or less tribulation, difficulties, and 

 unsatisfactory features on most tropical plan- 

 tations. Many crops such as coffee, cotton, 

 &c., require a large complement of labour at 

 a given time ; the cultivation of cotton is 



