Edible Products. 



SOS 



[November, 1911. 



COCONUT GROWING IN THE 

 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



General Statement- 



(From the War Department Bureau of 



Insular Affairs, 1911.) 

 After fifteen years of observation on 

 the ground in the Philippines, I have 

 reached the conclusion that no branch 

 of agriculture there offers such certainty 

 of steady and assured returns from 

 comparatively small investment as does 

 the growing of coconuts, which may be 

 raised to advantage as far north as 

 Pangasinan, La Union and South and 

 North Ilocos, and flourish in the South- 

 ern Philippines to a degree nowhere 

 excelled and seldom equalled in other 

 countries. 



I have found it extremely difficult to 

 obtain really reliable information as to 

 cost of production and average annual 

 value of crop. As a rule the Filipino 

 has the vaguest ideas on these subjects ; 

 one man will tell you that his trees 

 average ten nuts per year, while another 

 will solemnly assure you that fairly 

 good trees produce three or four 

 hundred. The same lack of accurate 

 knowledge is encountered when one 

 endeavours to ascertain the cost of 

 planting catch crops among the young 

 trees and the presumable profits to be 

 derived therefrom. It has, therefore, 

 taken a very long time to gather the 

 information which follows, but I believe 

 that it is reasonably reliable, and that 

 the conclusions which I draw from it 

 are conservative. 



The Selection op Sites for Coconut 

 plantations. 



Soil and climatic conditions in many 

 parts of the Philippines are ideal for 

 coconut production. It should be re- 

 membered that the agricultural methods 

 of the natives have violated every 

 known rule. Seldom has the ground 

 been really properly prepared for plant- 

 ing. The trees in variably stand too 

 thickly. The Filipino cannot rid him- 

 self of the idea that the more seed he 

 sows the greater will be his harvest. 

 This theory, when applied to coconuts, 

 results in the production of tall, spind- 

 ling trees, producing half the number of 

 leaves they ought to have, and bearing 

 nuts sparingly, if at all. It is a marked 

 case of a hard struggle for existence, and 

 the trees which lose out are often barren 

 for years before they ultimately die, yet 

 it is usually impossible to convince the 

 owner of a plantation which is suffering 

 from too close planting that he would 

 be much better off were he to cut down 



half or two-thirds of his trees, selecting 

 for elimination those which produce few 

 or no nuts. 



On the existing plantations trees fre- 

 quently stand within ten feet of each 

 other, or less, whereas thirty feet should 

 be the minimum distance from tree to 

 tree. As a rule, little effort is made to 

 keep the grouud under the trees free 

 from brush after they reach the pro- 

 ducing age, and it is by no means un- 

 usual to find forest trees competing 

 successfully with coconut palms for light 

 and air. Dead leaves are not removed, 

 but are allowed to hang until they fall, 

 and then slowly to rot on the grouud. 

 No effort is made to stop the depre- 

 dations of the rhinoceros beetle, which 

 iu some regions is fairly abundant. In 

 order to facilitate climbing, notches are 

 carelessly cut into the bark of tender 

 trees, often extending through into the 

 wood. Wherever the lower surface of 

 such a notch slants inward, water stands 

 in it,' and this causes rotting of the wood. 

 The vast majority of native coconut 

 plantations suffer severely and need- 

 lessly from this cause. If those who 

 gather the nuts were provided with the 

 climbers used by linemen in ascending 

 telegraph poles, they could go up and 

 down the trees easily and safely with- 

 out doing them the slightest injury. If 

 notches must be cut, they should at 

 least have their lower surfaces inclined 

 downward and outward so that water 

 will not stand in them, and great care 

 should be taken not to cut through the 

 bark. 



The present owners of coconut groves 

 often neglect to harvest their nuts, 

 which are allowed to fall and lie around 

 on the ground. It is seldom indeed that 

 effective means are taken to check the 

 depredations of fruit bats, crows and 

 monkeys, or to disturb the rats which 

 not infrequently nest at the bases of the 

 leaves and help themselves to the fruit. 



There are many very extensive planta- 

 tions which produce no nuts at all, for the 

 reason that their owners prefer to tap 

 the blossom stalk and make from the 

 juice thus obtained a fermented drink 

 known as " tuba." 



Only in the rarest instances is any 

 attention paid to seed selection, yet in 

 spite of this carelessness and neglect 

 tne Philippine Islands produced during 

 the fiscal year ended June 30, 1909, 

 some 1.658,724 piculs, or approximately 

 231,787,050 pounds of copra, or dried 

 coconut meat. This output excels that 

 of Java, of the Straits Settlements, of 

 Ceylon, or of the South Sea Islands, and 

 places the Philippines at the head of 



