THE COCO-NUT PALM, 



551 



The primary direction of the planter's industry will be to the 

 establishment of a nursery of young plants. In Ceylon, for this 

 purpose, the nuts are placed in squares of 400, covered with one 

 inch of sand, or salt mud ; are watered daily till the young shoots 

 appear, and are planted out after the rains in September. Sand 

 and salt mud are to be found on almost all the coasts where it 

 would be desirable to plant nuts, and if they are put into the 

 ground at the commencement of the rainy season, artificial water- 

 ing will scarcely be necessary. Any period, when there are 

 showers, would answer for transplanting them. I should say 

 from the middle to the end of January would be best, when they 

 are placed in the nursery in October and Kovember ; and in 

 October when they are planted in June. 



It is said that they should be allowed from 20 to 80 feet space 

 apart, but I will calculate their return when planted 27 feet apart 

 every way. This will give 58 coco-nut trees per acre. If manured, 

 for the first two years, with seaweed and salt mud, and supplied 

 with water in dry weather, there need be no loss, and the plants 

 will thrive the better. The land must be kept clear of weeds till 

 the plants are matured, in order to permit them abundance of air 

 and light. In five years, when well cared for, the flower may be 

 expected, but the plants will not be in full bearing before the 

 seventh or eighth year. Prom 50 to 80 nuts are the annual crop 

 of a tree ; but I will calculate at the lowest rate. One hundred 

 nuts will yield, when the oil is properly expressed, at least two 

 gallons and a half I shall not take into account the making of 

 jaggery sugar and toddy, or spirit from the sap, as I do not con- 

 sider that the manufacture would be remunerative ; and it must 

 be attended with much trouble, besides requiring a great deal of 

 care and some skill. 



Take the case now of a plantation of 100 acres in extent. This 

 would give us 5,800 trees, which, at 50 nuts per tree, 290,000 

 nuts, at 2J gallons of oil per hundred, would yield 7,250 gallons 

 of oil, the value of which any person may calculate, but which, 

 at the low rate of 3s. over charges, would furnish, as the gross 

 plantation return in oil, a sum of £1,087 10s. sterling. If the 

 cultivator, instead of making his produce into oil, were to sell it 

 in its natural state, his gross return in the West Indies would 

 be nearly £600 sterling, at the rate of ten dollars per thousand. 



Either of these sums would be a handsome return from 100 

 acres of any land, requiring no cultivation or care whatever^ after 

 the fourth year, and yielding the same amount for upwards of 

 half a century ! But this is not all. An outlay of a few pounds 

 will secure other advantages, and ought to enable the owner of a 

 coco-nut plantation to turn his gross receipts for oil into nett 

 profits. The coir made from the husk of the nut is calculated to 

 realise nearly one-fourth of the proceeds of the oil, but if we put 

 it down at one-fifth, we shall have, in addition to the value of the 

 oil, £217 10s., thus making a total of £1,305 sterling. If we 

 obtained 60 nuts from each tree, the return would be £1,566 



