144 



from weeds, as would be done under American or European 

 control, and in some of them the jungle of weeds is higher than 

 one's head. On the sides of the trunk a small epiphytic orchid 

 is abundant. ]\Iany of the trunks have been hacked with a 

 bolo, probably under the superstition that their productivity 

 is increased by such treatment, and such scars are usually over- 

 grown with lichens. Some of them produce nuts which are 

 completely filled with endosperm, without the usual hollow cen- 

 ter filled with milk. These trees, when known, are usually 

 marked with some distinctive sign. To facilitate picking the 

 ripe fruit, pairs of bamboo poles are frequently lashed from the 



Fig. S. Unloading coconut rafts on the Pagsanjan River, Philippine Islands. 



top of one tree to the top of the next, about three feet apart, 

 and the pickers travel across on them without having to return 

 to the ground. 



Immense quantities of coconuts are exported by steamer 

 down the river and across the lake to Manila. Most of these 

 are brought into Pagsanjan by raft. Long slender bamboos 

 are tied or spliced into a huge circular or oval frame, floating 

 on the river. To it is tied a circle of coconuts, still in the husk, 

 and the interior of the frame is then filled up and piled high 

 with others. Such a raft may be up to fifty feet long by half 

 as wide, and will contain some thousands of nuts. 



