44 

 deep as for the earlier growths. If the opening out of the 

 roots and manuring be thus annually attended to, the tendency 

 to form a sort of bulb on the surface and throw roots above 

 the soil will be checked ; the old worn out roots are cut away, 

 strong- roots from other trees and all weeds are removed. 

 Cattle are the most destructive the first two years, in eating 

 off the ends of the fronds and stripping the leaflets ; if the 

 plants suffer often in this way, the grov/th Is entirely 

 stopped ; sometimes the new leaf spike is pulled out, and the 

 tree dies. Should the heart of the stem and top not be 

 Injured, the tree v/ill still remain an unsightly object, and 

 often entirely profitless and barren. 



From the time that the leaflets become fully developed and 

 distinct from each other, till the period that the spathes (or 

 covers to the flower) make their appearance, the fronds should 

 be shaken and weighed or pressed downwards each month, so as 

 to keep them from each other and make them, spread, and careful 

 examination should be mc-de lest rats, beetles, or v/orms 

 have made nests upon the head, or bored into the cabbage heart 

 of the palm, and this often. Some planters sprinkle ashes 

 and salts in March and October about the spike shoots to keep 

 Insects, particularly red ants, away. The dried fronds, old 

 spathes, fruit and blossom stalks, and ragged fibres should be 

 removed at stated periods of perhaps a month, or as often as 

 the nuts may hereafter be gathered. 



Distinct leaflets will begin to show themselves at the end 

 of the first year, and "be completed at the end of the second. 



