tUU COCOANLT TREE. 



manner, sufficient to support the tor?., or the side 

 of the foot, and thn* asct-nd with the e\tra aid only of 

 their arms. This mode is also a dangerous one, as a 

 false step, when near the top of a high tree, geuerally 

 precipitates the climber to the ground. This notch- 

 ing canuot prove otherwise than injurious to the tree. 

 But the besetting sin of the planter of cocoanuts, and 

 other productive trees, is that of crowding. Cocoanut 

 trees, whose roots occupy, M'hen full-grown, circles of 

 40 to 50 feet in diameter, may often be found planted 

 within eight or ten feet of each other, and in the 

 native eainpongs ail sorts of indigenous fruit trees are 

 jumbled together, with so little space to spread in, 

 that they mostly assume the aspect of forest trees and 

 } icld but sparing crops. 



The common kinds of the cocoanut, under very fa- 

 vorable circumstances, begin to bear at six 3 ears of 

 age ; but little produce can be expected until the 

 middle or end of the 7th year. The yearly produce, 

 one tree with another, may he averaged at 80 nuls 

 the tree; where the plantation is a flourishing one, — as- 

 suming the number of trees, in one hundred oriongs, 

 to be 5,000, — the annual produce will be four hundred 

 thousand uuts, the minimum local market value of 

 Which will be four thousand Spanish dollars, and the 

 maximum 8,000 dollars. from either of these 

 sums six per cent, must be deducted for the cost of 

 collecting and carnage, &o. The quantity of oil 

 which can he manufactured from the above number 

 of nuts will be, as nearly as possible, 834China piculs 

 of lbs. 



The average price of this quantity at 7 drs. 

 per picul . . . 5,838 



Deduct cost of manufacturing, averaged at 

 one-fourth, and collecting, watching, &c 2,059 



Profit, Spanish dollars 3,779 



}o 



