May 1908.] 



427 



Edible Products* 



had better be grown in a closely protected 

 nursery until about a year old, when 

 the albumen of the seed will be com- 

 pletely assimilated and will therefore no 

 longer attract vermin, and when the 

 larger size of the plant will give it more 

 protection from starving cattle. 



In either case planting should be made 

 concurrently with the opening of the 

 rainy monsoon, during which season 

 further field operations will not be re- 

 quired except when an intermittent, 

 drier period indicates the advisability of 

 running the cultivator. 



The planting " pit " fetish, in such 

 common use in India, has nothing to 

 commend it. If stable manures of any 

 kind are available a good application 

 at the time of planting will effect 

 wonders in accelerating the growth of 

 the young plants. 



Where the necessary protection is 

 assured, the young seedling planted out 

 as above recommended should start at 

 once, without check of any kind, into 

 vigorous growth. 



The nursery-grown subject receives 

 an unavoidable setback. Its roots have 

 been more or less mutilated and, as we 

 may not prune top sufficiently to com- 

 pensate for the root injury, it is general- 

 ly several months before the equili- 

 brium of top and root is fully restored. 

 In most cases, by the end of the second 

 year, it will have been far outstripped 

 in the growing race by the former. 



The history, habits and characteristics 

 of the coconut tree indicate that it 

 needs a full and free exposure to sun, 

 air, and wind ; and, as it makes a tree, 

 under such circumstances, of wide 

 crown expansion, these indispensables 

 cannot be secured except by very wide 

 planting. 



Conventional recommenations cover 

 all distances, with quincunx (i-e., tri- 

 angular plantings) urged when the 

 8-meter plan is adopted. But the writer 

 has seen too many groves spaced at this 

 distance in good soil, with interlacing 

 leaves and badly spindled in the des- 

 perate struggle for light, air, and sun, 

 ever to recommend the quincunx, or any 

 system other than the square, at dis- 

 tances not less than 9 meters and, in 

 good soils, preferably 9"5 meters. 



The former distance will allow for 123 

 and the latter 111 trees to the hectare. 

 They should be lined out with the 

 greatest regularity, so as to admit at all 

 times of cross plowing and cultivation 

 as desired, 



54 



Prom this time forward the treatment 

 is one of cultural and manurial routiue. 



Annual plowings should not be dis- 

 pensed with during the life of the plant- 

 ation. These plowings may be rela- 

 tively shallow, sufficient to cover under 

 the green manures and crops that are 

 made an indispensable condition to the 

 continued profitable conduct of the 

 industry. Nothing is to be gained by 

 the removal of the earliest flowering 

 spikes. Flowering is the congestion of 

 sap at a special point which, if the 

 grower could control it, he would wish 

 to direct, in the case of young plants, to 

 the building up of leaf and w<> id. Cut- 

 ting the inflorescence of the coconut 

 results in profuse bleeding and, unless 

 this be checked by the use of a powerful 

 styptic or otherwise, it is doubtful if the 

 desired end would be accomplished. The 

 earlier crops of nuts should all be taken 

 with extension cutters or from ladders. 

 No shoulders for climbing should be cut 

 in any tree, the stem of which has not 

 become dense, hard, and woody. Cut 

 when the wood is the least bit succulent, 

 they become inviting points of attack for 

 borers. 



With these reservations, there is 

 everything to commend the practice of 

 shouldering the tree, as offering the 

 safest, most expeditious and economical 

 way of making it possible to climb and 

 secure the harvest. It is, of course, 

 understood that the cuts should be made 

 sloping outward, so as not to collect 

 moisture and invite decay, and no larger 

 than is strictly necessary for the purpose. 



CACAO EXPERIMENTS IN THE 

 INDIES. 



At the recent West Indian Agricultural 

 Conference, held at Barbados, Mr. Joseph 

 Jones, Curator of the Dominica Botanic 

 Station, read the following paper, deal- 

 ing with the propagation of cacao by 

 budding and grafting : — 



The variety of cacao first grown in 

 the West Indies was the Criollo, the best 

 kind, but very susceptible to any adverse 

 conditions. More hardy varieties, in- 

 troduced later, are the Porastero and 

 Calabpcillo, which to-day are cultivated 

 so largely in the British West Indies. 



At the present time Criollo cacao 

 appears to be grown on any scale only 

 in favonrable localities on the mainland 

 of Central America. Its produce is of 

 the highest quality, but the tree is 

 delicate, aud the yield per tree is low. 

 This is compensated for by the high 

 prices which this variety fetches. 



