Copra and its Preparation 365 



self-sown coco-nuts, as with cacao. If your 

 produce is larger and finer, and therefore of 

 higher commercial value than your neighbours, 

 not only will the yield tend to be less, but 

 your trees, pampered and cared for like the 

 spoiled children that you wish to make them, 

 are inclined to become less prolific and more 

 tender and liable to disease in all ways. It has 

 still to be seen whether the rough and ready 

 trees of the natives do not, in a term of years, 

 give as many tons of copra or, let us say, 

 give as much, or even more value in copra 

 as the more highly cultivated and regularly 

 planted estates of the European. You cannot 

 have everything, and although we are strongly 

 averse to indifferently cultivated estates, at 

 the same time we do not wish our readers 

 to be disappointed. A glance at any com- 

 parison of fine Criollo v. ordinary Calabacillo, 

 or even Forastero cacao, or, in cotton-growing, 

 Sea-island v. American upland or Marie 

 Galante, will at once illustrate what we mean 

 as to yields tending to decrease as the quality 

 is improved. With care, chances of disease 

 can be minimized, and cultivation assures an 

 equable output, increasing the quantity and 

 improving the quality of the product. But it 

 has still to be proved how far large estates can 

 successfully compete with native-owned areas 

 for extended periods, say for twenty-five or 

 fifty years. 



Coming back to the preparation of the 



