Edible" Products. 



2l4 



[September, 1011. 



There are fairly good-sized orders 

 coming from the United States for 

 cigars, and the situation is strenghening 

 after nearly all of the old and inferior 

 stocks of Manila cigars, which were sent 

 by the less scrupulous merchants to the 

 United States have been disposed of. 

 It is only a matter of a short time now 

 when we shall deservedly enjoy a steady 

 sale of our product. It seems strange 

 but one of Manila's leading firms is res- 

 ponsible for glutting the market. 



PHYSIOLOGY OF THE COCONUT. 



By E. B. Copeland. 



(Prom the Philippine Agriculturist and 

 Forester, Vol. I., No. 3, March, 1911,) 



The entire course of study of the 

 College of Agriculture is planned with 

 the understanding that any science of 

 crop production must be built on a 

 knowledge of the physiology and patho- 

 logy of the crops, and that without such 

 knowledge there can be no science of 

 agriculture. As the course is now organ- 

 ized, students entering the coconut 

 class have had successively a year of 

 general botany, a year of plant physio- 

 logy, and a year of general agronomy, 

 with special attention to the grains ; 

 they have also had one year of che- 

 mistry, and take a second year while 

 studying the coconut. They are obvi- 

 ously well prepared to study effectively 

 so much of the physiology of a crop as 

 does not require distinctly organic che- 

 mistry. And there is no crop, at any 

 rate in this part of the world, which is 

 so well known that such work as they 

 are called upon to do will not add mate- 

 rially and practically to our knowledge 

 of it. 



The best general and easily used index 

 to the condition of a plant is its rate of 

 growth. It is certainly possible to deve- 

 lop such a knowledge of the growth of 

 any plant, and of the reaction of the 

 growth to outside conditions, that it 

 shall be possible to make roughly such 

 allowances as are necessary for tempor- 

 ary conditions (the weather), and to 

 decide from lone day's measurement of 

 the growth that the plant's condition is 

 poor, fair or good ; that is, that the 

 more fixed conditions (soil, climate, state 

 of cultivation, freedom from living ene- 

 mies) are or are not what they should 

 be. The greac value of such knowledge 

 must be clear. 



The only past study of the physiology 

 of the vegetative coconut was published 

 by the writer in the first number of the 

 Philippine Journal of Science (1906, 



pp. 6-57). That study was made in one 

 place, San Ramon near Zamboanga, and 

 during a single exceptionally dry season. 

 Even though it was done with reason- 

 able thoroughness at the time and 

 place, it by no means furnished the data 

 necessary for the establishment of 

 standards by which the activity of 

 coconuts in general can be judged. 

 Neither do the data reported here 

 suffice, but they are a very material 

 contribution. For this place and season 

 they can be accepted with entire con- 

 fidence, for they are selected represent- 

 atives from a large mass of tables of 

 results, 



The coconuts of the college are none 

 of them on land well suited to this crop. 

 The soil, varying from forty centimeters 

 to hardly more than a meter in depth, 

 is everywhere too shallow. The depth 

 mentioned includes the clayey, not 

 sharply distinguished subsoil, which in 

 turn rests on a succession ot thin layers 

 of volcanic stuff, such as occurring in 

 thick strata, is known as Meycauayan 

 stone or " dobe stone." These groves 

 are moreover so suited that they receive 

 no ground drainage from Mount Maquil- 

 ing. As Los Banos has a decidedly dry 

 season, usually of several months' 

 duration, this soil becomes dry to a 

 degree incompatible with very successful 

 coconut culture without irrigation. 



The Root. 

 In my work at San Ramon, the most 

 rapid growth observed for any root was 

 3*5 mm. per diem ; but this was transi- 

 tory, and greatest growth per mensem 

 was less than 5 cm. The growth was 

 usually very irregular. This has been 

 the experience here as well ; but some 

 roots have come under observation 

 which were growing more regularly 

 fast. For example, the following table 

 shows the growth of two roots measured 

 by F. Cevallos. The figures in each 

 case represent the growth during the 

 preceding period, usually of one week. 



Table I. 







A. 



B. 



Octobei 



20 



... 130 



15-55 





28 



... 16-5 



1980 



November 



5 



... 23-2 



19-10 





13 



... 24-0 



2220 





20 



... 26-9 



16-70 





27 



... 230 



2490 



December 



4 



... 26-2 



24-80 





11 



... 29-5 



26-95 





18 



... 25-7 



24 '55 



It happens that the first of these roots 

 grew in fertilized ground, and the second 

 did not. The fertilizer was applied 

 during the second week of September. 



