458 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



coco-nuts. In the Madras district, the planters 

 prefer red clay mixed with sand free from 

 lime and saline substances. At Gopnath 

 (Bombay district) the palm grows freely in 

 solid limestones, provided a hole about 3-! ft. 

 deep by 3 ft. diameter is cut in the rock and 

 filled with mould. 1 In most places clayey 

 ground is considered the least suitable. On 

 the island of Taviuni the finest palms are 

 nearly all grown on the slopes along the coast. 

 The soil, which in many places has the appear- 

 ance of being covered with stones, is of volcanic 

 origin and very fertile. What look like stones 

 are just disintegrated pieces of lava or scoria, 

 and much lighter than ordinary rock. They 

 have fertilizing qualities, and I have seen in 

 several instances how sickly looking trees re- 

 covered in a short time by piling these rocks 

 round the foot of their stem say 4 ft. all round 

 it and a couple of feet high. 



Selection of seed-nuts is an important matter. 

 These should be cut from healthy, heavily 

 bearing trees (not under twenty years old) and 

 not picked up from those fallen to the ground, 

 which may have been cracked by striking some 

 hard substance in their fall. Preference should 

 be given to nearly round, medium-sized nuts 

 with a thick husk. They should be dry and 

 brown not green in fact such as would most 

 likely have fallen to the ground if they had 



1 This must refer to rocky soil, not solid rock. 

 H. H. S. 



