Edible Products. 



164 



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 considerable drafts upon the soil supply 

 of phosphoric acid; but, if the grain is used for fattening swine, whose manure 

 is much richer in phosphates than most farm manures, and the latter is restored 

 to the land, serious soil impoverishment may be averted. The next step in our 

 suggested rotation is the cotton crop. Here, too, limitations are imposed upon 

 the planter who is without abundant manurial resources to maintain the future 

 integrity 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 extravagant though such a pro- 

 cess be. The oil so returned is without manurial value, and, if left in the seeds 

 is so much money wasted. The rational process, of course, calls for the return 

 of the press cake, either direct or in the form of manure after it has been fed. 

 With this is also secured the hull, rich in both the potash and the phosphoric 

 acid, which we now know is so essential to the future welfare of the grove. 

 The above rotation is simply suggested as a tentative expedient. 



The ground will now be so shaded that we cannot hope to raise more 

 catch crops for harvesting, although it may be possible during the dry season 

 to raise a partial stand of pulses of manure value only ; but, from the fruit- 

 ing stage on, this becomes a minor consideration. This stage of the cultural 

 story brings us once more face to face with the principle contended for at the 

 beginning of this paper, namely, that there can be no permanent prosperity in 

 this branch of horticulture until the crop is so worked up into its ultimate 

 products that none of the residue of manufacture goes to waste. At best the 

 return of these side products is insufficient, and, despite their careful husbandry, 

 we cannot xdtimately evade a greater or less resort to inorganic manures of 

 high cost and difficult procurement. 



The residue from the press cake is rich in nitrogen and humus, which, 

 in the ever-increasing shade of the grove, will become more and more difficult 

 to produce there through nitrogen-making agencies ; but the waste from the 

 manufacture of coir and the ashes from the woody shell will go far toward 

 supplying the needed potash. Such a system would, if closely followed, practi- 

 cally restrict the farmers' ultimate purchases to a small quantity of acid phosphates, 

 or of bone dust, which, in conjunction with good tillage, should serve to maintain 

 the grove in a highly productive condition for an indefinite term of years. 



IRRIGATION. 



As an auxiliary manurial agent of definite, well-proven value in this 

 Archipelago, I will briefly recite some of the benefits that may be expected to 

 follow occasional irrigation during the dry season. It strongly accelerates growth 

 and early maturity. A few irrigated trees, reputed to be under five years from 

 seed and already bearing fruit, were shown the writer on the Island of Jolo. 

 The growth was remarkably strong and vigorous, notwithstanding that the water 

 of irrigation had been applied in such a way that the tree could only hope 

 to derive a minimum of benefit from its application. It had merely been turned 

 on from a convenient ditch whenever the soil seemed baked and dry, at interval® 

 of one to three weeks, as circumstances seemed to require. 



Irrigation, but always in connection with subsequent cultivation, may be 

 considered equal to a crop guaranty that is not afforded so effectually by any 

 purely cultural system. Rarely has a better opportunity occurred to demonstrate 



