20 THE S A MOAN CO CO A NUT 



the estimate fails of fulfillment. Green copra — fairly dried and 

 liable to much shrinkage — is worth, and has been for some years 

 past, in spite of a constantly declining foreign market, II cents 

 a pound when bought from natives. If the estimated produc- 

 tion held good, this ought to yield $13.75 per acre; but again 

 the estimate usually places the yield at about $12 per acre, pos- 

 sibly no great difference, as such things go. It will be observed 

 this allows nothing for labor. 



Without attempting to reconcile the apparent differences, it is 

 said that a tree is on the average " worth a shilling a year " — 

 that is, yields a profit to that amount. Planting in the manner 

 I have mentioned, an acre would carry about forty-eight trees, 

 and if these yielded the estimated shilling each, or 48 shillings 

 in all, the calculation of $12 per acre profit would be quite well 

 sustained. However the estimates may conflict, however over- 

 drawn they may be, if any — and I am of opinion that, like all 

 similar calculations, they are more encouraging in theory than 

 reliable in practice — they at best do not show a greater profit per 

 acre than with ordinary prices — not those of the past y ear — may 

 be reasonably anticipated in any of the eastern central States 

 from corn or wheat. As a matter of fact, a very average crop of 

 tobacco, in any of the States growing that staple, would prove 

 more profitable than do the ideal cocoanut groves of the picture 

 islands in the books of travel. True, the trees once planted are 

 producers far beyond the limit of the ordinary lifetime, while the 

 farm crops mentioned are to be laboriously cultivated year after 

 year. On the other hand, many profitless years elapse in wait- 

 ing for the trees to reach maturity. Even then, in a country 

 where wages are high, because everything else is as well, expense 

 claims a liberal share of the product, for " making copra " is at 

 best a slow and laborious process, although there is but a single 

 planting and no cultivation. Back of all this must be remem- 

 bered the serious expense of clearing original bush. 



Copra is continuously made, as the nuts ripen, from about the 

 middle of April till the middle of October or early part of No- 

 vember — that is, during the dry season — but the making is more 

 active in July, August, and September. Curing could be done, 

 so far as the supply of nuts goes, through the remainder of the 

 year, but the rains, varying from frequent to almost constant, do 

 not permit of drying. 



A boy or man, generally the former, with a piece of sennet 

 about 18 inches in length, looped on either foot, will climb the 



