554 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



contemplating the sale or rental of his grove, 

 puts out a new plantation under the old, setting 

 the young palms, which, of course, can grow 

 only very slowly, between the rows of the 

 almost worthless old trees. Even if such a 

 planter can be made to admit that he would 

 receive twice the income by cutting out half 

 of his trees, he would not dare to run 

 against public criticism by so doing which 

 is another instance of the deplorable power of 

 ' costumbre.' 



" The planters are slowly learning their lesson 

 that coco-nuts will grow and do well at long 

 distances from the sea coast and at a consider- 

 able elevation ; neither salt water nor salty 

 winds are requisite any longer. The world's 

 best coco-nut district, Laguna Province in 

 Luzon Island, is situated some 20 miles from 

 the ocean and protected by mountains besides. 



"A new feature of the coco-nut business has 

 attracted some attention recently in the Philip- 

 pines ; the sap from the flower-spathes con- 

 tains about 1 6 per cent, sucrose, and it only 

 remains for the organic chemists to devise 

 some practical method of preventing premature 

 fermentation in the tuba, in order to start 

 new sugar and alcohol industries here. This 

 tuba can be purchased at i~ centavos per 

 litre, or about 3d. for 10 litres (2 imperial 

 gallons). One tree will yield ij litres of 

 tuba per day ; roughly speaking, then, ten 

 trees will give i kilo of sugar per day and 



