December, 1912.] 



469 



COCONUTS INJ MALAYA. 



IMPORTANT POINTS AFFECTING THE INDUSTRY. 



We cull the following from the Indian Agriculturist of November 

 1912 :— In his report for 1911 the Director of Agriculture, F.M.S., says the 

 questions connected with coconut cultivation have not received the atten- 

 tion they desereve in the Federated Malay States. There has been too 

 much of the idea that a coconut only has to be planted somewhere near the 

 sea and it will grow anyhow. As a matter of fact, the coconut probably 

 requires even more careful attention than Para rubber trees. One point is 

 clear and that is that conditions in Malaya are quice different from those 

 obtaining in other countries ; for example, the best plantations here are 

 those on heavy clay land while the usual idea is that coconuts thrive 

 best iu light soils. The majority of plantations here are on the flat low- 

 lying lands near the coast. 



Drainage an Important Factor. 



It is evident that on such soils drainage is a most important factor and 

 the possibilities of this should be especially looked into when the location 

 of a proposed plantation is being selected. The main drains at least 

 should be put in before any planting is done. A coconut is very intoler- 

 ant of stagnant water and some of the native holdings suffer consider- 

 ably through inattention to this point. 



The question of the cultivation of coconuts is still an open one. 

 Does clean weeding as commonly practised on rubber estates, pay 

 best? Is it better to keep clean an eight-foot circle round the trees 

 and allow the weeds to grow (always excluding lalang) or should the 

 intermediate land be ploughed or forked? Should a leguminous cover 

 crop be grown ? Is any manurial treatment required beyond an occa- 

 sional dressing of bullock manure? I would not wish to pronounce on any 

 of these points though from what I have seen I would say that clean 

 weeding is not so great a success with coconuts as it has been with 

 rubber. The experiments that are being carried out by Mr. W. ti. Munro, 

 of Permatang Estate, Jugra, on these lines will be watched with much 

 interest, and it is to be hoped that other planters will make similar tests 

 for themselves. 



COAGULATION OF FUNTUMIA. 



By the Wickham Process at Peradbniya, 

 It is well known that considerable difficulty has been experienced in 

 the coagulation of the latex of Funtumia elastica. The biscuit exhibited 

 by the Department of Agriculture at the All-Ueylon Exhibition took three 

 weeks to coagulate. At the beginning of this month 3 lb«. of latex from 

 the Peradeniya trees was put through the Wickham B model smoker. It 

 coagulated in an hour and a half, a block of 5b oz. of rubber being obtained 

 therefrom. The rubber took longer to form than is the case with Para 

 which coagulates almost immediately on contact with the hot smoke. 



