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tages of such methods in preparing their product for the 

 market. 



Another factor which in some cases reduces the profits 

 which should be obtained by the coconut grower is the 

 practice of taking the nuts from the tree before they fall. 

 It is not easy to see the advantage of this method, and it has 

 always seemed to me curious that the Malay, with whom 

 dislike to unnecessary work is no less a trait than in other 

 races, should so frequently adopt it. If a nut is plucked 

 unripe the amount of copra it contains is less than if it is 

 left on the tree; and we have no data to show that any 

 decrease in that amount of copra or the oil it contains takes 

 place if the nut is kept a little time after it is ripe. When 

 the nut is fully ripe it falls from the tree and can be collect- 

 ed from the ground with considerably less trouble than if 

 it has to be picked from the top of the tree, and with the 

 additional advantage that it contains its maximum amount 

 of copra. 



Further observation seems to point to the fact that the 

 thorough drying of copra is more easily effected in the case 

 of ripe nuts which have fallen from the tree than with those 

 picked, many of which are not fully ripe. 



The arguments I have heard adduced in favour of the 

 practice of climbing the trees and plucking the nuts are that 

 the copra is darkened in colour, that the other nuts still un- 

 ripe on the bunch are improved by the excision of the ripe 

 ones before they fall, and that the prevention of theft is 

 more difficult. None of these reasons seem to me to weigh 

 seriously against the probable increase in the crop of copra 

 and the saving in labour which gathering the nuts from the 

 ground ensures. 



The coconut planter, like other tropical cultivators, is 

 conservative in his methods, but such an easy method of 

 improving his cultivation should at least be the subject of 

 careful experiment before its adoption is refused. 



Coconut cultivation, while not offering the possibilities 

 of profit which the growing of rubber shows, is an extreme- 

 ly safe and profitable industry, and many areas of acces- 

 sible land, especially on the Coast, are much better suited 

 to the coconut palm than the para rubber tree. 



The acreage under coconuts in the Native States at the 

 end of 1908 was 118,697, an increase of over 6,000, or five 

 per cent., since the same date in 1907, when there were 

 112,550 acres. 



The value of the coconut land planted in the Federated 

 Malay States cannot be less than some $23,000,000. 



