Edible Products. 



162 



Avhile a relative crop of Hut cotton of 237 kilos, (700 pounds) per hectare will only 

 exhaust, in round numbers — 



Pounds. 



Nitrogen ... ••■ ••• ••• ••• 114 



Potash ... ••• • ■■ •• ... 70 



Phosphoric acid ... ... ... ... 30 



There is an analogy between these four products that makes them all 

 comparable, in so far as all are largely surface feeders, and, as experience shows 

 that there can be no continuing success with the last three that does not include 

 both cultivation and manuring, we may use the analogy to infer a like indispensable 

 necessity for the successful issue of the first. Cultivation as a manurial factor should, 

 therefore, not be overlooked, and all the more strongly does it become emphasised 

 by the very difficulties that for some years to come must beset the Philippine planter 

 n the way of procuring direct manures. 



When it comes to the specific application of manures and how to make 

 the most of our resources, we shall have to turn back to the analysis of the 

 nut and note that, relatively to other crops, it makes small demands for nitrogen. 

 At the same time it must not be forgotten that these chemical determinations 

 only refer to the fruit and that, with the present incomplete data and lack of 

 investigation of the constituent parts of root, stem, leaf, and branch, we have 

 nothing to guide us but what we may infer from the behaviour of the plant 

 and its relationship to plants of long deferred fruition, whose manurial wants 

 are well understood. 



It is now the most approved orchard practice to encourage an early 

 development of leaf and branch by the liberal application of nitrogen, whose 

 stimulant actions upon growth are conceded as the best. In temperate regions, 

 the exigencies of climate exact that this be done with discretion and care, in 

 order that the unduly stimulated growths may be fully ripened and matured 

 against the approach of an inclement season. In the tropics no such limitations 

 exist, and the early growth of the tree may be profitably stimulated to the 

 highest pitch. That this general treatment, as applied to young fruit trees, is 

 specifically the one indicated iu the early life of the coconut, may be quickly 

 learned by him who will observe the avidity with which the fleshy roots of a 

 young coconut will invade, embrace, and disintegrate a piece of stable manure. 



Notwithstanding lack of chemical analysis, Ave may not question the fact 

 that considerable supplies of both potash and phosphoric acid are withdrawn in 

 the building up of leaf and stem ; but these are found in sufficient quantity in 

 oils of average quality to meet the early requirements of the plant. It is only 

 when the fruiting age is leached that demands are made, especially upon the 

 potash, which the planter is called upon to make good. 



Good cultivation, the application of a generous supply of stimulating nitrogen 

 during its early career, and the gradual substitution in later life of manures 

 in which potash and phosphoric acid, particularly the former, predominate, are 

 necessary. How, then, may we best apply the nitrogen requirements of its early 

 life ? Undoubtedly through the application of abundant supplies of stable manures, 

 pre«s cakes, tankage, or of such fertilizers as furnish nitrogen in combination with 

 the large volume of humus necessary to minister to the gross appetite of the 

 plant under consideration. But the chances are that none of these are avail- 

 able, and the planter must have recourse to some of the green, nitrogen- 

 gathering manures that are always at his command. 



He must sow and plow under crops of pease, beans, or other legumes 

 that will furnish both humus and nitrogen in excess of what they remove. 

 Incidentally, they will draw heavily upon the potash deposits of the sod and 



s 



