118 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



the interior cavity has been used up. This condition 

 can be recognized by the heaviness of the nut and by 

 the noise which it makes when shaken. 



C. Germination of the Seed. — Under exceptional 

 circumstances seed may be planted directly in the 

 field before waiting for it to germinate. This could 

 well be practised, for instance, if the land is already 

 in cultivation with a crop which would not be inter- 

 fered with by the presence of the coco-nuts, or with 

 such a temporary crop that it would be difficult at 

 any later time to stake the ground off and make the 

 holes for planting the coco-nuts. In general practice, 

 however, since some coco-nuts will not germinate and 

 blanks will thus be left in the field, and because the 

 coco-nuts in the field are exposed to the attacks of 

 various enemies which can easily be guarded against 

 while the nuts are kept in small beds, and since it 

 is usually desirable to have the nuts germinating and 

 getting their start at the same time that the land is 

 being prepared to receive them, for all of these reasons 

 the nuts are germinated collectively, and are subse- 

 quently transplanted to their permanent places. 



The way that the nuts can best be handled while 

 they germinate depends somewhat on the time which 

 is to elapse before they are transplanted, and partly 

 upon local climatic conditions. Leaving out of account 

 the mere piling up of the nuts without order, which 

 is mere shiftlessness, there are several ways which, under 

 different conditions, may be recommended for the 

 treatment of the seed nuts. One of these is to tie them 

 in pairs and hang them over a pole. When this is 

 done, the nuts will obviously receive no water from the 

 soil ; it is therefore a method which can be employed 

 only where the climate is exceedingly humid or where 

 it is very easy to sprinkle the nuts at any time. If 

 the nuts are hung where no water will fall upon them 

 except artificially, the rate of germination is entirely 

 subject to control. This method is therefore a good 

 one when it is desired that the germination should be 



