120 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



of ground water, and therefore in an economy of 

 sprinkling ; and the nuts ought not to be buried for 

 more than a third of their own thickness. In such case 

 also the nuts may be placed in contact, side by side. 

 If, on the other hand, it is anticipated that the nuts 

 must remain in the seed bed for a year or more, then 

 the soil in the seed bed ought to be worked fine to a 

 depth of at least 30 centimetres. The nuts may well 

 be buried to about their entire thickness, and there 

 should be left between the neighbouring nuts a space, 

 the width of which must depend upon the size which 

 the seedlings will reach before they are transplanted. 



Under all conditions it is desirable to choose for 

 the seed bed a place where water is easily available 

 for sprinkling, where the ground is well drained, and 

 where there is light shade. The nuts should be 

 placed on the side ; and it is probably worth while, in 

 order to facilitate germination and to guard against 

 occasional distortion of the young shoots, to slice off 

 a piece the size of the palm from the husk, near the end 

 at which germination occurs, and to place the nuts with 

 this cut surface on the upper side. The cultivation 

 of the seed bed and the ground immediately around it 

 should be thorough enough to protect it from any 

 danger of white ants, and it is usually worth while 

 to enclose the seed bed with a fence to keep off larger 

 enemies. 



While it is very strongly to be recommended that 

 the seedlings be transplanted before they have an 

 opportunity to develop a root system in the seed beds, 

 and while there is no necessary reason why any nut 

 so transplanted should not live and thrive, it is still 

 not fairly to be expected that every nut transplanted 

 will ultimately produce a tree. To fill up vacancies 

 which may subsequently occur in the field, a small 

 reserve seed bed should be maintained. It is worth 

 while to space the trees in this reserve bed as far 

 apart as 1 metre by 50 centimetres, and to remove the 

 alternate trees as they are needed in the field. The 



