166 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



copra is sold, or whether the oil is extracted on the 

 place. 



For a number of reasons, then, it is clear that the 

 best way to harvest the nuts is to permit them to ripen 

 fully on the tree until they fall. 



In spite of the strong reasons for this conclusion 

 most coco-nut planters, the world over, cut the nuts 

 down. The chief reason for this is that they do not 

 understand that incompletely ripe nuts produce less 

 copra and poorer copra, and that it is harder to dry. 

 And it is a fact that the individual planter must usually 

 sell his copra on a market where he gets a price fixed 

 by the general quality of the product of his region. 

 There will be more to say on this point in connection 

 with the manufacture of copra. Another reason why 

 nuts are cut is the force of custom. Men with few 

 trees have everywhere preceded plantations. It is 

 convenient for them to harvest a crop and use it, and 

 be done with it for some months. The same is true of 

 plantations just coming into bearing. The first crops 

 are too small to justify frequent search for fallen nuts, 

 or the constant or very frequent drying of copra, and 

 immature nuts are not likely to break when they fall 

 from young trees. As plantations develop the custom 

 of cutting down the nuts is kept up, after the real 

 reason for it ceases to exist. 



There are of course reasons to be found for cutting 

 down the nuts. It is sometimes found that nuts 

 germinate without falling. This is a bad characteristic 

 of rare trees ; their nuts should be rigorously excluded 

 from seed-beds. Excessive dampness can also, rarely, 

 cause germination on the trees ; coco-nuts will not 

 thrive where the air is so damp that this is common. 



It is objected that some nuts are lost if they drop 

 as they ripen. If the place is decently clean, even 

 though it be on a steep hillside — at least as steep as 

 coco-nuts will thrive on — less nuts need be lost than 

 would be broken if prematurely cut. There are 

 sufficient reasons, altogether aside from the ease of 



