22 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



the cultivation is chiefly below 60 metres, but few 

 productive trees being found up to 275 metres. 



In every land where there is any coco-nut industry, 

 the moisture is a factor in the climate which requires 

 much more careful consideration than does the tempera- 

 ture ; for the temperature conditions are uniform over 

 comparatively great areas, and are comparatively easily 

 determined. The plantation of any size, which has 

 not on itself considerable differences in the available 

 moisture, is exceptionally uniform. Where there are 

 considerable differences they demand their appropriate 

 differences in the treatment of the coco-nuts, or else 

 that parts be not used for this >crop. Everything that 

 is true and important with regard to the need of the 

 coco-nut for moisture, follows obviously from what has 

 already been explained about transpiration. The simple 

 general rule is that conditions should be such as to 

 permit the most active possible transpiration, without 

 the tree's suffering from the loss of water. 



The moisture needs to be considered in three forms : 

 as rainfall, atmospheric humidity, and ground water. 

 No rule can be given as to the tree's need of any one 

 of these independently of the others. Speaking of 

 whole islands, or of large tracts of country, the ground 

 water depends upon the rainfall, but in small localities 

 this is not at all the case. To a less extent still the 

 humidity depends upon the rainfall ; nor is there any 

 nearly exact dependence of rainfall upon humidity. 



The annual rainfall in a part of Ceylon which is 

 noted for its coco-nut industry is 70 inches (178 cm.), 

 and from the development of the coco-nut industry 

 in this part of Ceylon the figure is often given as 

 representing the need of the coco-nut. However, the 

 tree flourishes in places in Ceylon (Negombo) where 

 the rainfall is 2 metres. In various other parts of the 

 world there is a prosperous coco-nut industry with still 

 heavier precipitation ; as 3 metres in part of J ava, the 

 Seychelles, Zanzibar, etc., 3 J on the eastern coast of 

 Samar, and even 4 metres in Dutch Guiana and the 



