Edible Products. 



540 



[June 1908. 



excess of what they remove. Inciden- 

 tally, they will draw heavily upon the 

 potash deposits of the soil, and they 

 must all be turned back, or, if fed, every 

 kilo of the resulting manure must be 

 scrupulously returned. He must pay 

 for the cultivation of the land, for the 

 growing of crops that he turns back as 

 manure (and that involves further ex- 

 pense for their growing and plowing 

 under), and, in addition, he must be 

 subject to such outlay for about seven 

 years before he can begin to realize for 

 the time and labour expended. 



But there are expedients to which the 

 planter may have recourse which, if 

 utilized, may return every dollar of 

 cultural outlay. By the use of a wise 

 rotation he can not only maintain his 

 land in a good productive condition, but 

 realise a good biennial crop that will 

 keep the plantation from being a finan- 

 cial drag. The rotation that occurs to 

 me as most promising on the average 

 coconut lands of these Islands would be, 

 first, a green manure crop, followed by 

 corn and legumes, succeeded by cotton, 

 and then back to green manures. 



To make the first green crop effective 

 as manure, both lime and potash are 

 essential— the former to make available 

 the nitrogen we hope to gather, and the 

 potash in order to secure the largest and 

 quickest growth of the pulse we are to 

 raise for manurial purposes. 



Both these elements are geneially in 

 good supply in our coconut lauds ; but, 

 u u er< ? is uncertainty upon this point, 

 both should be supplied in some form, 

 fortunately, the former is cheap and 

 abundant in most parts of the Archipel- 

 ago, and, when well slaked, may be 

 freely applied with benefit at the rate 

 of a ton or even more to the hectare. 



In default of the mineral potash salts, 

 the grower must seek unleached wood 

 ashes, either by burning his own unused 

 jungle land to procure them, or by 

 purchasing them from the neighbour 

 who has such land to burn over. If 

 located on the littoral, he will carefully 

 collect all the seaweed that is blown in, 

 although in our tropical waters the huge 

 and abundant marine algfe are mostly 

 lacking. Such as are found, however, 

 furni*h a not inconsiderable amount of 

 potash, and, in the extremities to which 

 planters remote from commercial centres 

 are driven, no source is too inconsider- 

 able to be overlooked. 



The first green crop selected will be 

 one known to be of tropical origin, which, 

 with fair soil conditions, will not fail to 

 give a good yield. He may with safety 

 try any of the native rank-growing 



beans, cowpeas, soja, or velvet beans ; 

 or, if these are not procurable, he has at 

 command everywhere an unstinted seed 

 supply of Cajanus indicus, or of Clitorea 

 ternatea, which will as well effect the 

 desired end — to wit, a great volume of 

 humus and anew soil supply of nitrogen. 

 It remains for the planter to determine 

 if the crop thus grown is to be plowed 

 under, or if he will use it to still better ad- 

 vantage by partially feeding it, subject, 

 as previously stated, to an honest 

 return to the land of all the manure 

 resulting therefrom. 



He may utilize it in any way, even to 

 selling the resulting seed crop, provided 

 all the remaining brush is turned back 

 to the land and a portion of the money 

 he receives for the seed be reinvested 

 in high-grade potash and phosphatic 

 manures. The plantation should now be 

 in fair condition for a corn corp, and, 

 as a very slight shading is not prejudicial 

 to the young palms, the corn can be 

 planted close enough to the trees, leaving 

 only sufficient space to admit of the free 

 cultivation that both require. 



It must not be forgotten that corn 

 makes the most serious inroads upon 

 our soil fertility of any of the crops in 

 our rotation, and, unless by this time the 

 planter is prepared to feed all the grain 

 produced to fatten swine or cattle, it 

 had better be eliminated from the ro- 

 tation and peanuts substituted. In addi- 

 tion to this, he must still make good 

 whatever drains the corn will have made 

 upon this element of soil fertility. 



Cropping to corn attacks the coconut 

 at a new and vulnerable point, against 

 which the careful grower must make 

 provision. It will be remembered that 

 an average corn crop makes very con- 

 siderable drafts upon the soil supply of 

 phosphoric acid ; but, if the grain is used 

 for fattening swine, whose manure is 

 much richer iu phosphates than most 

 farm manures, and the latter is restored 

 to the land, serious soil impoverish- 

 ment may be averted. 



The next step in our suggested rota- 

 tion is the cotton crop. Here, too. limi- 

 tations are imposed upon the planter 

 who is without abundant manurial 

 resources to maintain the future integ- 

 rity of his grove. He may sell the lint 

 from his cotton, but he cannot dispose 

 of it (as is frequently done here) in the 

 seed. 



If the enterprise be not upon a scale 

 that will justify the equipment of a 

 mill and the manufacture of the oil, he 

 has no alternative but to return the seed 

 in lieu of the seed cake, wasteful and 

 extra vagent though such a process be. 



