and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— March, 1912. 283 



Table TI.— Percentage of Germination of Seed from 



Tapped I re s coated with Boes ax and Paraffin, 

 3 g No. of slants Percentage of 



— p B Obtained, seed Germination. 



M m 



o *d *** «, 



<« S o *> B 



M 





M 







ci 





oi 









(£ 



a 





i 



eat 



in 



1 







H 





s 





t3 



B 



ca 



Oi 



M 



a, 



£> 



107 



61 



59 



34 



33 



108 



71 



60 



40 



23 



94 



74 



52 



41 



24 



8! 



68 



45 



37 



20 



100 



61 



65 



34 



20 



86 



58 



47 



32 



24 



SB J 



1 180 3 weeks 



2 180 5 do 



3 180 7 do 



4 180 8 do 



5 180 9 do 



6 18) 10 do 

 * Untreated seeds from tapped trees (see Expt. I.) 



In no case was there apparent a large falling 

 off in germinating power from the third to the 

 tenth week. It is hoped to repeat both ex- 

 periments in 1912 - Straits Agricultural Bulletin 

 for February. 



COCONUT GROWING IN THE EAST. 



Moke from Mb. Wicherley. 

 Sir,— The contribution from my pen on the 

 subjoct of coconut growing appears have created 

 in the minds of some of your correspondents an 

 erroneous idea in regard to the position of the 

 Federated Malay S ates as a copra producer. I 

 have no brief for Ceylon, or any other centre 

 of the industry, and in drawing a com- 

 parison between the values of output from 

 the places named and Malaya I was merely 

 showing the difference between what is indis- 

 putably the finest and highest-priced copra the 

 world produces and a product, which, whether 

 there are shortcomings in the Malaya variety 

 of coco plant or not, has not heretofore been 

 put upon the market in a condition to com- 

 pete successfully with the Ceylon and Southern 

 India article. I have already given my testi- 

 mony elsewhere to the adaptability of the 

 Malayan soil for all the purposes (including the 

 raising of the coconut palm, which grows taster 

 and begins to bear sooner than in Ceylon) to 

 which European capital can be profitably ap- 

 plied ; and as regards copra, the i.ffijial figures 

 testify eloquently to the happy condition of the 

 industry, and it would be superfluous forme to 

 add a sjllaDle thereto. I would, however, re- 

 spectfully point out to your correspondent, Mr. 

 Hallifax, that "quit rent" lands are not abso- 

 lute freeholds as such obtain in India and 

 Ceylon. Furthermore, what does your corre- 

 spondent mean when he says, speaking of the 

 " alleged " superior value of Ceylon and Sou- 

 thern India plantations, that " unfortunately 

 for Mr. Wicherley the facts are too well known 

 to permit of any doubt whatever"? Does he 

 traverse the market quotations as to values of 

 Malayan copra as against that from Malabar 

 and Ceylon? I wrote with the actual market 

 prices for the day before me and also from 

 data giving prices ranging over a long period of 

 fluctuating values. When Mr flallifax speaks 

 of a "superior process of treatment now in use," 

 does he not give his own argument away ? 1 

 have some knowledge of the Marseilles copra 

 market, and, save for small occasional consign- 

 ments recently forwarded from Penang by an 

 enterprising Frenchman (M, Marot), who claims 

 to be able to turn out an article so superior that 



even the mail boats do not refuse to carrs- it, I 

 have nevt-ryefc heard of Malayan copra f -tching 

 a price "higher than Ceyl>n copra now com- 

 mands or is ever likely to command." I can 

 assure Mr Efallifax that the Malayan authorities 

 themselves would we'c >rae any such appreciation 

 in the Peninsula copra, but nobody conversant 

 with the actual facts can with any seriousness 

 maintain such a claim. 



With regard to coconut land valuation, I 

 ventured early in the summer of last year to 

 address a letter to the Financial Times on this 

 very matter, and I stated therein the lines upon 

 which values should be obtained " in the pro- 

 bable absence of any estate books, 11 and these 

 coincide with the suggestions of your corres- 

 pondent. But in the present case " Q lery " 

 at-ks for certain information in circumstance 

 which poiut to the probability of an estite uuder 

 European manipulation in Malaya, and that was 

 the reason for advising inspection of "estate 

 books" among other things of course. I can only 

 reply to the question Mr flallifax puts to me 

 regarding native ownership of coconut estatts 

 in Ceylon by saying that nobody having a practi- 

 cal knowledge of the subject can reasonably ex- 

 pect a coconut plantation with its restricted 

 values to have the same attractions for European 

 capital and European enterprise as, say, a rubber 

 estate, and that is the reason why, I take it, 

 that, in spite of the heroic efforts of promoters 

 during the last 18 months, underwriters are 

 unsympathetic towards coconut estate proposi- 

 tions, even wheu these are on offer from free- 

 hold Ceylon. 



As a safe investment, yielding always a mode- 

 rate and steady return on one's capital, I doubt 

 whether there is anything in tropical agriculture 

 (outside rubber growing) to compare with good 

 coconut lands. 



But there are, I repeat, better openings and 

 immense possibilities in the exploitation by 

 European capital of those waste products which 

 have always been too much for native enter- 

 prise and native talent. It was the same with 

 regard to the introduction of the desiccated 

 coconut. Although the native desiccateted the 

 nut daily for his curry, it was left to an enter- 

 prising Englishman to make a big and quick 

 fortune by placing it upon the European market 

 in a style that was both businesslike and at- 

 tractive. — I am, &c, 



William Wicherley, 

 22, Limes-Grove, Lewisham, S.E., 26th Feb. 



Sir, — The correspondence on coconut growing 

 published in your columns from time to time is 

 always of great interest, and you will doubtless 

 receive more replies than mine to the letter 

 which you publish to-day from Mr William 

 Wicherley, and to the heresies enunciated there- 

 in in regard to coconut growing in Malaya, and 

 particularly to those contained in the last para- 

 graph of his letter against the copra industry 

 in general. As he has dealt seriatim with 

 " Querry's" questions, I will, for the sake of 

 succinctness, follow on the same lines. (1) The 

 Malay Peninsula- -on the land bordering the 

 sea— affords excellent facilities and the very best 



