460 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



from germinated nuts is not so clear as that 

 from others. 



FIGURES 



are ticklish things to deal with. An aver- 

 age tree should give in a decent soil in its 

 eighth year 50 nuts, and there is no reason why 

 100 should not be picked from trees on good soil. 

 On some of the Islands in the Pacific I have 

 seen acres of native nuts (uncultivated) giving 

 an average of 120 to the tree, and in Ceylon on a 

 500 acre estate I picked 4,599 nuts per acre. 

 These ran 4,800 to a ton of copra or about 280 to 

 the picul. Copra at present is $10/50 per picul. 

 The cost of bringing an estate into bearing 

 varies with the locality, but $160/ to $180/ per 

 acre should be the figure and dividends may 

 range from 10 per cent, to as much as 50 per 

 cent, though the latter is exceptional. 



T. A. M. 



The above article on " Coconut Planting,'' 

 has drawn a vigorous, incisive and inform- 

 ing letter from our correspondent "JB." — one 

 of the best authorities on the subject in 

 Ceylon. The writer differs from Mr. Man- 

 chip only on minor points and in most ins- 

 tances it seems a matter of preference or 

 adhering to accustomed methods, such as in 

 the distance of planting, the dealing with 

 weeds and dead branches, and tending of 

 lately put out plants. The most experienced 

 planters, we believe, prefer kainit to salt. The 

 dictum that, given a suitable soil and a fair 

 rainfall, coconut trees will give excellent results 

 100 miles away from the sea, is an oft debated 

 one. What B. says of the estate in the Dumbara 

 Valley is true of most coconut plantations 

 upcountry ; the trees may bo prolific bearers, 

 but the nuts are small. 



Negombo, 28th April, 1912. 

 Deak Sik, — In answer to your invitation, I 

 beg to otter a few remarks on Mr. T. A. Man- 

 ship's paper on Coconut Planting. 



Laterite being a hard soil through which roots 

 pass with much difficulty and do not get much 

 plant food from, it naturally follows that such 

 a soil is not suitable for coconuts and in fact 

 for any crop. 



Mr. Manchip says he worked an estate in the 

 Chilaw District with a white clay field which 

 yielded 30 nuts per tree per annum and over 

 7,000 nuts ran to a ton of copra = 1,400 per 

 candy. IN either the field nor the out-turn of 

 copra is etrikingly bad, 



I know of estates, with a soil which is for the 

 better part free, and which are regularly culti- 

 vated, whose annual yield is not much above 30 

 nuts per tree, and the out-turn of copra is even 

 more than the estate Mr. Manchip mentions. 

 Some of the recent reports on coconut com- 

 panies in Ceylon record this, but this is due to 

 drought. 



I happened to be, till quite recently, the 

 Superintendent of one of the good dividend- 

 paying estates Mr. Manchip makes reference 

 to, and successfully demonstrated that "a white 

 loose sand : ' is not " unsuitable for coconuts." 

 When I took up the management of this estate, 

 the white sand fields were allowed to go out of 

 cultivation as being " unsuitable for coconuts " 

 I reclaimed these fields ; and when I left the 

 estate early this year, these fields were bearing 

 better than the red -sand fields on the estate. 



I will not enter into a discussion with Mr. 

 Manchiu on his dictum "given a suitable soil 

 and a fair rainfall, they (coconut trees) will give 

 excellent results 100 miles away from the sea." 

 Suffice it to say, that I know of an estate in the 

 Dumbara Valley where the trees by the river 

 are bearing very well, but the nuts are small and 

 will run about 1,500 to a candy of copra, Low- 

 country natives say that up-country coconuts 

 have very little oil in them. 



The clearing away of decaying timber on 

 coconut estates is necessary in the Straits, which 

 is plagued by the black beetle ; we are not 

 troubled much with this in Ceylon. 



The advice about the selection of seed nuts 

 and their position when placed in the nursery, 

 is orthodox. 



Planting at 30' « 30' is a good distance for rich 

 soils. Personally, I favour the old regulated 

 distance of 25' m 25' which has come down 

 to us from Dutch times. I prefer holes of 3' 

 cube to 2£< cube for the plants. As stated in 

 my paper read before the Agricultural Society, 

 I fill the holes to within a foot of the surface, 

 by cutting the surface soil round the holes. By 

 this method, the mouths of the holes reach 

 a diameter of 5 or 6 feet and permit of a large 

 area of soil being loosened rouud each plant to 

 give roots a start. A demonstration of this 

 method can be seen on the railway journey to 

 Negombo on the loft of the line shortly after 

 Jaelais passed, on Mudaliyar AE Rajapakse's 

 estate. 



I am in agreement with Mr Manchip that 

 plants should be put out shortly after they have 

 sprouted. The late Mr Advocate Brito told me, 



