124 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



condition creates a labour problem which should be 

 solved by every prospective planter before he tries to 

 establish himself. The problem is a personal one in 

 its nature ; the man who is acquainted with local and 

 neighbouring conditions, and who is apt and skilled 

 in handling labour, will solve it with little difficulty. 

 The stranger or the man without the genius for holding 

 and handling his labour will not succeed under such 

 conditions. 



Land which is covered by forest will show the 

 measure of its fitness for coco-nut production to the 

 practised eye at the first glance. Both the moisture of 

 the air and the moisture in the soil show themselves in 

 the character of the native vegetation. There are in 

 all lands characteristic trees and other plants which 

 serve the local expert as infallible guides to the local 

 soil and climatic conditions. Only the local expert can 

 read such clues ; but it can be taken as a quite safe 

 general proposition that wherever in the tropic lowlands 

 there is a heavy stand of large and evergreen trees the 

 coco -nut with proper treatment can be made very 

 productive. The clearing of this land will have to be 

 done by local labour, and this labour will usually do its 

 work best if permitted to do it in its own way. In the 

 Malayan region the native practice is to cut first the 

 smaller plants, the vines and the younger trees, and to 

 burn these when they become sufficiently dry. The 

 larger trees are usually felled after they die as fche result 

 of ringing or of fire, or rarely are left to fall to pieces 

 as they decay. The practice, on any large scale, must 

 be to fell all trees and to burn the waste vegetation as 

 completely as possible. This is most often done by 

 burning three times ; what does not burn the first time 

 is gathered into piles for the second, and this operation 

 is repeated with what is left for the third burning. 



Whether or not the local vegetation, as it is cleared 

 off, will furnish saleable products which will pay for the 

 work, or yield a profit, is a question depending al- 

 together on local conditions. It ought not to need to 



