CHAPTEE V 



FIELD CULTURE 



A. Preparation of Land. — The preparation which 

 land needs to receive in advance of the planting of 

 the coco-nufcs in the field depends of course altogether 

 on its previous condition. If it has been already 

 in cultivation in other crops, there is obviously no 

 especial advance cultivation required. If i it has 

 been previously in cultivation and is now occupied 

 by grass, the preparation needed before it can be 

 used for coco -nuts offers no particular problems, 

 and may therefore be passed over with a word. For 

 coco-nuts, as for most other crops, this is the worst 

 condition in which land can begin to be used. However, 

 in many parts of the world this grass-land, or land in 

 which grass and brush are mixed, is the only place 

 which is practically available. If possible, such land 

 should be ploughed repeatedly until the wild grass has 

 been practically eradicated, and short-lived catch-crops 

 should be made to pay the cost of this work. 



Wherever it is available, the first choice of land 

 will be given to virgin forest, or to second growth 

 forest as old as possible. In many parts of the tropics, 

 notably in Africa, the valley of the Amazon, and some 

 of the large and sparsely populated islands of the 

 Old World, such as Borneo, New Guinea, Celebes, 

 Mindanao, and Sumatra, such land is still to be secured 

 at a very low price. This is true, however, solely because 

 of the absence or scarcity of inhabitants, and this 



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