Planting in Fiji 459 



been left on the tree a few days longer. In 

 some places we are advised by the sound of 

 the water when shaking the nut to sort out 

 those which have too little or too much water 

 in them, and reject them. This is hardly 

 necessary or reliable, as defects of this descrip- 

 tion will most likely show themselves when 

 the nut sprouts. 



Beds are made in the fairly well shaded 

 nursery by stirring up the soil to the depth of 

 a foot or so, and in these the nuts are placed 

 but not covered up. Two men bring in 200 

 nuts and place them in position in the nursery 

 as a day's task. To gather the nuts one of 

 them would climb the tree with a long rope, 

 pass this over a couple of leaves, fasten it to 

 the stalk of a bunch of nuts, cut the stalk close 

 to the tree, and lower the bunch to the ground. 

 The trees from which they were allowed to 

 gather the nuts I had previously marked with 

 a ring of black paint round the stem. In the 

 nursery I placed the nuts in small squares 10 

 by 10 ft., in which position they were easily 

 attended to, and watered them in their early 

 stage every few days if no rain had fallen for 

 some time. There was a constant stream of 

 water running through the nursery. 



Though it is sometimes difficult to see them, 

 all nuts have three ridges on their outside skin, 

 and some planters in Ceylon advise placing the 

 seed-nuts with the top ridge in the ground for 

 the first four weeks and then turning them over 



