130 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



tree which is placed less than 10 metres from any 

 other tree, and the distance between the trees is the 

 thing which is important. Planted in this way, and 

 maintaining the distance of 10 metres between trees, 

 each hectare of ground, instead of 100 trees, will 

 support 115*47 trees. To find the number of trees on 

 one hectare with any given spacing, if the trees are 

 planted "in square," divide 10,000 by the square of 

 the distance between trees expressed in metres ; if the 

 trees are in quincunx, divide 11,547 by the same figure. 

 Whatever the spacing, any given area has room for 

 15*47 per cent more trees in quincunx than in square. 

 The advantage of this method of planting, provided 

 the distance between trees is not altogether too short, 

 is too obvious to need further argument. 



B. Transplanting. — The preparation which it is 

 worth while to give to the spots where the nuts are to 

 be planted depends on the nature of the ground and 

 the price of labour, and on the age at which the seed- 

 lings are transplanted. An ideal method under all 

 conditions would be to prepare a very large hole and 

 to fill this, around the nut, with very rich and well 

 prepared soil. It is especially important in an altogether 

 practical sense that the coco-nut should grow rapidly 

 from the very start. It is obliged to compete for light 

 with other plants unless it receives really good cultiva- 

 tion. Competitors for light are not dangerous unless 

 they are nearly as tall as the coco-nut, or taller. By 

 the time the coco-nut is three or four years old, it is 

 a very simple matter to protect it against this kind of 

 competition, and the sooner the leaves can be made to 

 grow up to the point where they overtop the neighbour- 

 ing vegetation, the cheaper will be the cultivation which 

 is necessary to bring a grove into profitable bearing. It 

 is therefore a general principle that the smaller the tree 

 is, the more need it has for cultivation and the better 

 return it will pay for even a small amount of fertilizing ; 

 and the easiest and best time at which to provide it 

 with soft and rich soil is when it is being transplanted. 



