Planting in Fiji 461 



on their opposite large flat side. I did this 

 with some nuts, but could see no difference 

 whatever in the development of those and the 

 others, which had rested on their flat side all 

 the time. It seems only reasonable to con- 

 clude that Nature in this respect is our best 

 guide. When a nut falls from a tree it finally 

 comes to rest on the ground on its flat side 

 and from that position goes on developing. 



When the seed-nuts germinated and the 

 young shoots were about 18 in. long, I trans- 

 planted them to their final position in the field. 

 According to a writer it takes twelve months 

 for a growing nut to reach that size. In 

 Taviuni it does not take so long, and nuts 

 gathered in April and May were ready to be 

 planted out in November, just before the rainy 

 season. 



On the subject of coco-nut planting, the 

 Honourable Staniforth Smith writes as follows 

 in the " Handbook of Papua" (iQOQ) 1 : 



" The nursery is very easily and expediti- 

 ously prepared. Select good, loamy, friable 

 soil, and trench it to a depth of 18 in., divided 

 by paths 6 ft. apart, dig cross trenches 6 in. 

 deep and i ft. apart, pack the nuts, unhusked, 

 in these, 2 or 3 in. apart with the base or stalk 

 end uppermost, which enables the shoot to 

 come up vertically from one of the three eyes 

 of the shell ; return as much of the soil as will 

 leave only 2 in. or 3 in. of the nut above the 



1 See also the section on " Papua," pp. 175, et seq. 



