V 



FIELD CULTURE 



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contributed considerably to close planting is the fact 

 that a coco-nut plantation is usually valued by the tree 

 instead of by its area or even by its production. In 

 the principal coco-nut region of the Philippines the 

 younger groves are usually planted more closely than 

 those twenty years or more old. Filipino planters have 

 themselves told me that they do not get a greater yield 

 by the closer planting ; and as a matter of fact I am 

 satisfied that the yield of the newer groves, even after 

 they come into full production, is quite appreciably less. 

 But, as business is done in these islands, if a man 

 desires to sell his grove, he is likely to receive from 

 three to eight pesos a tree, the price depending upon 

 the location and upon the current market price of copra, 

 but not upon the closeness of the planting nor upon the 

 actual number of nuts which the trees produce. 



It is said that natives in Ceylon, Indo -China, and 

 some other parts of the Old World, plant their coco-nuts 

 as close together as 4 metres when they are not mixed 

 with trees of other kinds. According to Watt's 

 Dictionary, the Indians of Bombay plant their trees 

 about 4*5 x 5 '5 metres, and in Mysore 6x6 metres. 

 The customary distance in Zanzibar is given as 4*5 x 6 

 metres. Prudhomme regards 7 '5 metres as the least 

 proper distance in poor soil. It is my opinion that 

 where this distance is the greatest which the coco-nuts 

 can use to good purpose the conditions are so unfavour- 

 able that coco-nuts should not be planted. The usual 

 distance on larger plantations in Trinidad is from 7*3 

 to 8 metres (26 feet); 7*3 metres (24 feet) is the 

 commonest distance between them. Coert, in a care- 

 fully worked out prospectus for coco-nut plantations in 

 Java, assumes the distance between trees as 8*4 metres. 



Semler regards 10 metres between trees as in 

 general the best distance, and cites as evidence the 

 experience of the Alma estate in Penang. A part of 

 this estate, planted with 100 trees to a hectare (that is, 

 10 metres apart), yielded an average of 60 nuts per 

 tree, or a total of 6000 nuts ; while another part having 



