Cattle, Catch-crops and Cover-plants 333 



acre, the following year. 1 At five years of age 

 the crop would still be about the same, and the 

 question of cutting out should then be con- 

 sidered, due regard being paid to the intrinsic 

 value of the crops. 



In the sixth and seventh years, as the coco- 

 nuts come well into bearing, the coffee trees 

 must of course be eliminated, unless there is 

 exceptionally wide planting for the coco-nuts, 

 such as 40 ft. by 40 ft. We know but little as 

 yet as to the limits of development of Coffea 

 robusta, but there seems no reason to suppose 

 that with very wide planting there would be 

 any danger of interference with the proper 

 root development of the coco-nuts during the 

 first seven or eight years of their life. Under 

 the circumstances of planting advocated in other 

 parts of this book, say 30 ft. by 35 ft. or 35 ft. 

 by 35 ft., at least two, and we think three, rows of 

 Coffea robusta might be safely planted between 

 the coco-nut lines. We should consider the 

 most advantageous system would be to plant 

 three rows of coffee between every two rows 

 of coco-nuts, themselves 35 ft. apart with 6 ft. 

 between the coffee bushes so that the distance 

 between the outermost rows of the coffee and 

 .the coco-nuts would be 8J ft. 



1 The Director of Agriculture in the Philippines, 

 in his last annual report, writes : " 144 plants of choice 

 ' robusta ' from Java set out in 1909 have made a very 

 vigorous growth and are now 130 to 180 centimetres in 

 height with bushy tops. When one and a-half years 

 old the trees bloomed abundantly. There is a good crop 

 of berries about one-third grown at the present time." 



