462 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



surface. Water well and cover the beds with 

 3 or 4 in. of long cut grass. This can be found 

 in abundance in the vicinity. In the absence 

 of rain for a longer period than four or five 

 days, the nuts should be watered from time to 

 time. They should be ready for removal to 

 the plantation in five or six months. The 

 seed-nuts should be the product of healthy, 

 heavily bearing trees. They should be ripe 

 but not dry, heavy, and of an oval shape, 

 with thin husks, the three longitudinal ridges 

 of which should not be too prominent." 



Before planting out, every vara (as sprout- 

 ing coco-nuts are called in Fiji) was carefully 

 -examined. Those which had come on much 

 quicker than the others, and those which were 

 much slower than the rest, were all rejected. 

 By this proceeding I lost perhaps 5 per cent, 

 of the varas, but never as much as 10 per cent. 

 It is not unlikely that excess or want of water 

 in the nut may have been the cause of the too 

 forward or too slow growth of the vara. At 

 any rate, the condition of those 5 per cent, of 

 varas was not normal, and for this reason they 

 were condemned. The rest of the varas were 

 a perfectly even-sized lot. 



With holing .and planting out, many 

 different opinions have been given on the 

 subject of the size of the hole in which the 

 varas are finally to be planted, and the distance 

 between them. I used to dig them 2 ft. square 

 and 2 ft. deep with a distance of 28 ft. between 



