THE SUPPLEMENT TO THE 



Tropical Agriculturist and Magazine of the C. A. 8. 



No. 3.] SEPTEMBER, 1912. [Vol. XI. 



INLAND PLANTING OF COCONUTS. 



An extract we published last month from the 

 Financial Times, on the inland planting of coco- 

 nuts, leads our experienced correspondent " B." 

 to grapplo with this fallacy, and also with some 

 extraordinary calculations that the writer made 

 as to the amount of nitrogen, etc., removed 

 annually from the soil by the coconut palm. 

 "B." also points out the conditions essential 

 to the experiments referred to being of value, 

 to prove that the yield of oil per nut is the same 

 from palms grown inland and by the sea. What 

 he further has to say regarding explosives, and 

 the future explosive " Ergite," and their use 

 in coconut cultivation and agriculture gener- 

 ally, should be of service to practical planters 

 of this product 



B's LETTER. 



July 13th. 



Dear Sir, — In your last issue is an interes- 

 ting extract from the Financial Times on the in- 

 land planting of coconuts. 



The writer -peaks of the "commonly accepted 

 fallacy that the coconut palm must be planted 

 by the sea, to thrive." I believe vtry few people 

 in this island embrace that fallacy a> d a large 

 ruajo ity give practical proof of a contrary be- 

 lief by planting coconuts largely inland, where 

 many of the best plantations are to be found. 

 According to this writer, if the palms have 

 " high illumination of the air, prevalence of 

 wiuds, tropical heat, adequate rainfall, proper 

 soil contents, and free underground mass-water 

 movement " they will grow far inland. These 

 are ideal conditions, not only for "growth " but 

 for very profitable growth. 



Now comes something very interesting. He 

 says that 70 trees to the acre, yielding 80 nuts 

 per tree per annum, that is 5,600 nuts, and 16 

 fronds per tree per annum, that is 1,120, re- 

 move from the soil annually ; 



31 



Nitrogen .. 400 lb. 



Poia^h .. 600 In 



Pbos. Acid . . 185 lb. 



In my note-book I find that according to the 

 Philippine J ournal of Science 3,000 nuts per acre 

 per annum and 1,200 fronds removefrom the soil: 

 Nuts Fronds Total 

 Nitrogen 66-04 27-88 equal 83'92 



Potash 57 -l 9 65'-4 do 



Phos. Acid 16'78 2170 do 37 48 



Will Mr. Bamber or any other Agricultural 

 Chemist come to the aid of bewildered prac- 

 tical planters and explain this very great dis- 

 parity? I may be pardoned for expressing the be- 

 lief that the writer of the article under review 

 has drawn on his imagination for his figures. I 

 am not forgetful of the fact that the writer of 

 the article gives the raanurial requirement of 

 nearly 1*87 as many nuts as the Philippine 

 Journal takes account of ; even then, the dis- 

 parity is unaccountable. At 5,600 nuts the 

 figures will be nearly : 



Nitrogen . . 104-79 lb. 



Potash .. 10675 lb. 



Phos. Acid .. 29-50 lb. 



" Experiments made with 1,000 nuts ob- 

 tained from palms growing along the sea shore 

 and 1,000 nuts from palms grown inland 

 seemed to prove that the yield of oil per 

 nut is almost exactly the same." The ex- 

 periment was not conducted as it should have 

 been. The nuts should have been weighed 

 in the shell, and their kernels should have 

 been weighed before the extraction of oil. The 

 general belief in the Island is, that nuts by 

 the sea-Bhore have more oil than nuts grown 

 inland. This is a subject worthy of investi- 

 gation by the Agricultural Department. 



Explosives are likely to revolutionise agri- 

 culture before long. The idea of exploding holes 

 cut for coconuts, in hard soils, has occurred to 

 many people. The subject has been discussed 

 with me some years ago ; also the breaking up 

 of hard soils in which coconuts are growing. The 

 danger of handling dynamite and its high cost, 



