THE OOCOANUT PALM. 



225 



month, once a day will suffice for the next five, or until the monsoon 

 showers come on, and once every two or three days during the dry 

 seasons of three following years, according to circumstances. On 

 hill-sides it is usual to water during the hot weather, even till the 

 first buds appear ; and on sandy plains on the sea-coast, when the 

 trees are in full bearing, eight or ten feet of bamboo (with the divi- 

 sions at the joints broken to form the pipe) is often driven down 

 by the side of the cocoanut tree, and cool water from weed-covered 

 tanks is poured down to refresh the roots and lower soil. The soil 

 round the young plant is often kept damp by a bed of leaves, par- 

 ticularly such as will not be eaten by white ants. If the soil is 

 naturally poor or of a hungry nature, salt, ashes, paddy husks, goats' 

 dung, and dry manures may be applied for the first year, but in after 

 seasons, fresh ashes, decayed fish, carrion, or other refuse, is preferable, 

 also oil-cake. 



If the soil at the foot become too rich, the larva of a beetle, a large 

 grub with a reddish-brown head, soon finds its way to the roots and 

 into the stem, hence though the foot of the tree may enlarge, the 

 stem does not develop itself, the new leaf-spike at the crown becomes 

 yellow, fades, and is not replaced, nor does it open out into the usual 

 frond, and in two or three months, sometimes a little longer, the 

 whole tree top is affected and drops down piecemeal to the ground. 

 It would appear that fear of this evil is the reason why ashes alone 

 are recommended by so many cultivators. 



As soon as the new fronds have divided into the long side leaflets 

 or lost their connected form, which is at the end of the first year, the 

 soil should be dug up and ashes applied about once a month. When 

 the tree is two years old, and henceforward at the commencement of 

 every monsoon in May and June, the whole of the soil, a yard or two 

 round the stem, must be opened out and ashes with dry manure 

 applied and left open to the air ; and in October, when the rains have 

 ceased, this freshened earth should be replaced and levelled. As the 

 tree gets older and the depression at the foot is gradually filled up, 

 it may not in after years be necessary to dig so deep as for the earlier 

 growths. If the opening out of the roots and manuring be thus 

 annually attended to, the tendency to form a sort of bulb on the sur- 

 face and throw roots above the soil will be checked ; the old worn-out 

 rootlets are cut away, strong roots from other trees and all weeds are 

 removed, and the process acts both as " a wintering and pruning," as 

 recommended by scientific gardeners in Europe to productions of their 

 own gardens. Cattle are most destructive the first two years, in 

 eating off the ends of the fronds and stripping the leaflets ; if the 

 plants suffer often in this way, the growth is entirely stopped ; some- 

 times the new leaf-spike is pulled out, and the tree dies. Should 

 the heart of the stem and top not be injured, the tree will still remain 

 an unsightly object, and often entirely profitless and barren. 



From the time that the leaflets become fully developed and distinct 

 from each other, till the period that the spathes (or covers to the 

 flower) make their appearance, the fronds should be shaken and 

 weighed or pressed downwards each month, so as to keep them from 

 each other and make them spread, and careful examination should be 



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