Hi. Timehri. 



As there were in round figures 9,700 acres planted prior to 1911 if 

 the palms had been planted at proper distances and properly tended 

 there should now be about 390,000 trees in full-bearing, producing 

 at least 15,000,000 coconuts a year. In addition at least 2,300 

 acres should be commencing to bear and their yields should increase the 

 total to about 21,000,000 nuts per annum. The annual export of coco- 

 nuts is about 2,000,000 nuts. The copra exported annually represents 

 about 325,000 nuts and the coconut oil about 1,075,000, leaving about 

 17,600,000 nuts available for local consumption. If this is the actual 

 position the community can look with equanimity towards the threatened 

 scarcity of imported fatty foods for we shall have the equivalent in food- 

 value of 6f millions of pounds of butter or oleomargarine or of five mil- 

 lions of pounds of ghee and oil. 



But does the colony produce 21,000,000 coconuts annually? lam 

 satisfied that owing to lack of care in planting, uneven spacing, neglect 

 of drainage and of tillage, the ravages of fungoid and insect pests, and 

 especially lack of continuity in clean-weeding, the areas which should 

 now be bearing are not producing nuts in numbers even approximating t:> 

 those they should do. It seems to be largely forgotten by planters of 

 coconut-palms in British Guiana that the greatest enemy to the vigorous 

 and rapid growth of all palnis is grass. If the roots of the palms have to 

 compete with those of abuudant grasses in their requirements for plant- 

 food — and the coconut-palm is greedy in this respect — it is not possible 

 for the palms to make satisfactory progress in their younger stages and as 

 the yields of coconut palms are governed to a very great extent by their 

 satisfactory early growth, they cannot produce full or even approximately 

 satisfactory crops of good nuts. Hence our satisfaction in the greatly 

 increased area planted has to be lessened by the unsatisfactory yield. 

 Our exports of coconuts products have increased from 500 in 1896 to, in 

 round figures, 1,911,000 nuts, 169,000 lbs. of copra, and 26,674 gallons of 

 oil in 1917, and these alone represent our reserve stock of fatty foods on 

 which we may be compelled to rely. How does this reserve compare with 

 our recent war-time demands for fatty food ? 



Taking the years since the war we have imported yearly 



Equivalent in 

 fat or oil. 

 Butter and its 



substitutes ... 550,000 lbs, 415,000 lbs. 



Ghee and Laid ... 540,000 „ 529,000 „ 



Vegetable and Animal 

 Oils .. ... 278,000 gins. 2,502,000 „ 



3,446,000 lbs. 



Under present conditions of coconut oil making it would require in 

 ound figures 15,000,000 coconuts to supply this amount of fat-; but the 



