326 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



There is only one thing against its cosmo- 

 politan and clearly beneficial adoption : it is 

 not in use, while the root-chopping method is 

 and always has been. Give a coco-nut, orange, 

 tea, or coffee estate manager a live mulch 

 plant to keep down the grass and weeds, and 

 to freshen and enrich the surface soil, then 

 hear him explain that he has long-standing 

 orders to make " not less than three general 

 cleanings per annum," and they must be made 

 on a very generous scale under pain of the 

 suspicious proprietor's criticism. 1 



Must we wait for the " coming generation " 

 to take the helm? Is there no way to reach 

 the planter, the proprietor, and the estate 

 superintendent, and to make them think, and 

 make them stop robbing their own pockets ? 

 Cannot any of your readers devise some means 

 to get the mulch idea into common practice 

 in all branches of the biggest and best of all 

 the sciences ? Eight tons, or bushels, or bags 

 against seven is not a startling increase, to be 

 sure ; but general mulching will easily do that, 



and then . Well, we shall have our 



^800,000,000 "pin money" to do something 

 with. 



1 In the section on " Laying-out the Plantation," we 

 discuss (p. 199) the use of Kapok trees on estates, and 

 valued the cotton at 3jd. per Ib. Owing to a shortage 

 in supply, and to the more general use of this article 

 for spinning, the value last year increased to yd. and 

 8d. Ib. and is now worth 5d. or a little more. 



