TALISSE ISLAND 73 



house until the ground is ready for them to be planted out. 

 I must confess I do not see the utility of thus allowing the 

 coco-nut to germinate before it is planted. The opzichter 

 told me that unless they did so the palm might grow up 

 crooked. This is undoubtedly absurd. It is probable, on 

 the other hand, that if they were not thus partially husked 

 before the rains actually begin, the risk they run of drying 

 up and dying before they are planted would be considerably 

 lessened. "When once fairly started, the young coco-nuts 

 grow rapidly and in fiye years bear fruit. In ten years they 

 are in fall fruit, and give but little farther trouble. For the 

 first few years of their growth the planter allows a certain 

 number of the young forest trees to grow up with them, so 

 as to afford them shade and shelter. In three or four years 

 these are ringed again and allowed to wither and die. 



The forest is prepared in strips as described above to 

 afford protection to the young and tender palms from 

 strong driving winds. 



When a coco-nut plantation is once well established, it 

 is perhaps as good a class of property as could be wished 

 for in the tropics. The trees require little or no care, are 

 free from any serious diseases, and the copra can be easily 

 prepared for export by unskilled labour. The copra-market, 

 too, is fairly constant, and always returns a good profit to 

 the grower. The most annoying parts of coco-nut plantiag 

 are the initial stages, when many of the young palms and 

 nuts are destroyed by droughts and other unforeseen cir- 

 cumstances, and the fact that there is always a period of 

 some five or sis years when there is absolutely no return 

 for the capital invested. 



In ten years' time, when the 54,500 coco-nut palms 

 which had in 1886 and previous years been planted in TaHsse 

 and Kinabohutan are fuU grown and bearing fruit, they will 

 yield a handsome profit to the M.H.V. In the meantime 



