Alcohol from Coco-nut Palms 553 



for at least eight months, even in a badly ven- 

 tilated go-down. 



"I have seen nuts wasted more recklessly in 

 Zambesia, and brush growing as high 1 between 

 the rows at Trinidad, but I have never seen 

 tree-vigour so ruthlessly weakened as here in 

 the Philippines. Probably a part of this 

 trouble can be charged to the old ' cacique ' 

 system, introduced by the Spaniards. By this 

 system the owner, or rather the boss, of the 

 plantations of the district, imposed certain 

 rules and customs upon the people living upon 

 the estates in his neighbourhood, and since 

 he almost always received a vast income 

 and therefore did not care much for the details, 

 the down-trodden labourers and would-be small 

 planters were not particularly interested in the 

 ways and means by which the crops were 

 turned into the pockets of the aforesaid cacique. 

 Some of the ' Datos ' of Mindanao still rejoice 

 in this system, but their power has been broken 

 in the last few years, especially in the coast 

 areas. 



" Another cause for the absurd close planting 

 of coco-nuts here is the custom of leasing and 

 selling plantations by the number of trees 

 rather than by the area. This brings about a 

 ridiculous state of affairs ; for instance, when 

 the yield of the plantation begins to fall off 

 seriously, and the trees (frequently only 15 ft. 

 or 20 ft. apart) commence robbing each other 

 of light and food, the shrewd proprietor, 



