464 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



the surface varies according- to different writers. 

 One gives it as being done to protect the 

 young plant against strong winds, but it is 

 difficult to see the point in this ; the lower part 

 of the stem may benefit a little, the rest of the 

 plant with its large broad leaves remaining 

 unprotected. Another writer advocates filling 

 up the holes flush with the surface at time of 

 planting. A Ceylon planter was persuaded to 

 do this. He lost 90 per cent, of his young- 

 nuts, and reckoned he had made a fool of 

 himself. It is not unlikely that it is beneficial 

 to the vara that the sun and rain get at the 

 crown of the root at the start. By and by this 

 becomes unnecessary, and by that time the 

 hole has been more or less filled up, and the 

 seed-nut covered by the effects of natural 

 processes, as described above. 



It is generally recommended to place some 

 kind of manure in the holes in order to give 

 the vara a good start, and thus make up for 

 the check it received when being transplanted 

 from the nursery. All I did some days before 

 planting was to cut, dry and burn some of the 

 grass growing near, and mix the ashes with 

 the soil which was afterwards used in planting. 



Now we come to the care of the young 

 trees. When once the varas have got a good 

 start, there is not much done to them here in 

 Fiji. In other places they are watered for 

 a considerable period, but this as far as 

 I know has not been and is not done here. 



