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takes three to five weeks before the sprouts appear above the ground. 

 When ready for transplanting, they are set a distance of about 25 feet 

 apart. If the soil into which they are transplanted is not rich, the best 

 planters dig holes several feet deep, 5 feet each way around, and fill in 

 with the topsoil. It is necessary for the young plant to have shade. 

 Many intelligent planters, who have lately taken up the planting of 

 kola, use the banana for the purpose. The banana is very rapidgrow- 

 ing. It shelters the young kola plant and makes a profitable crop 

 while the kola is coming into bearing ; kola, in turn, will begin to yield 

 by the time the banana has exhausted the soil. The bananas are planted 

 10 11 or 12 feet apart, with the kola at every second banana in the di- 

 rection of the line. Thus, a plot of 20 feet square is enclosed with ba- 

 nana trees with four kola plants at the corners, leaving the kola from 

 20 to 34 feet apart. In sheltered situations, as in a low valley between 

 hills that have a growth of woods, the banana is omitted in the c> ntre 

 of the square, to give more light and air. The gradual thinning out of 

 the banana is made as the kola acquires increased growth. Kola is 

 usually planted at the beginning of the wet season. Grown wild, it com- 

 mences to yield fruit about the fifth or sixth year. Well-cultivated spe- 

 cimens often begin to bear considerably earlier. In the wild state they 

 reach full bearing in the ninth or tenth year. When the kola tree at- 

 tains full size, it is customary with planters to place in the field with 

 them small varieties of coffee, or some vegetable plants such as peas or 

 yams. Kola gives the necess iry shade. The stems and leaves of the 

 other plants furnish a good fertiliser. By this method a kola plantation 

 costs nothing except for the first planting. Kola does not appear to ex- 

 haust the soil as does the coffee, banana, orange, etc. Upon once attain- 

 ing its growth it appears to be of permanent value. Specimens that have 

 borne for fifty years and probably longer have been noted. Indepen- 

 dent of its value for the nuts, kola is an excellent shade and timber tree, 

 and is utilised for this purpose. A conservative estimate of the yield is 

 120 pounds of dried nuts, or over 250 pounds of green nuts per 

 tree, or from 8,000 to 10,000 pounds per acre. No such amounts, how- 

 ever, are gathered in any portion of the West India Island sowing to the 

 unsystematic and haphazard measures employed in harvesting the crop. 



Taking up that part of the plant probably of the greatest interest, 

 the seed or nut, we may examine the pods, which we will find contain 

 from two to twelve nuts or seeds, so closely pressed together in growing 

 as to be crowded into various shapes. The cellular tissue of the pod 

 before drying is filled with a very slimy, stringy mucilage that is 

 largely observed upon ripening. A singular fact noticed about the 

 seeds is the fact that red and white nuts are found side by side in the 

 same pod. So far as my observation goes, pods may be found that 

 contain all red or all white, but no trees give all white or all red seeds. 

 The native users lay great stress upon the difference between the white 

 and the red kola nuts. Symbolically, the white nuts means peace, 

 happiness, veneration, acquiescence to overtures. The red nuts mean 

 the reverse : war, ill-will, challenge, rejection of overtures, etc. In 

 some instances the white seeds command the higher price, being in re- 

 pute as giving greater and better effects. In the dried nuts found in our 

 market it is difficult to distinguish between the white and red varieties. 

 Oxidation during the drying of the seeds gives to both about the same 



