742 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [May i 1888. 
Estate, Marudu bay, to compete for the prize to be 
given by the London Chamber of Commerce in Decem- 
ber next. 
By the S. S. " Paknam " half a mile of heavy rail- 
way wag imported by Messrs. E. E. Abrahamson 
& Co. The railway is especially designed to trans- 
port heavy timber from the forests, and if found 
practicable will be used on a large scale with steam 
cranes and motors. 
The Sandakan Flower Show.— The most successful 
Meeting of the whole year, in Sandakan, is probably 
the Flower show, which was originally started by 
Mr. Pryer in old Sandakan, and has been held for 
the last ten years on Chinese New Year's day. In 
addition to exhibits of Flowers, a stimulus is annually 
given to gardeners to improve the quality and in- 
crease the number of their vegetables liy prizes which 
are made as liberal as the funds will allow. Latterly, 
Fruits have taken a more and more important place 
in the exhibits as the trees have come into bearing. 
Last year, the " Manufactures and Products of British 
North Borneo " had a special place, which was in- 
creased this year by the offer of forty eight prizes 
for this department alone, to which about half the 
funds were devoted. 
Messrs. Van der Hoeven, Van Gogh, and Merchistein 
were passengers to Sandakan by the S. S. "Paknam," 
arriving on the 19th February. Mr. Van der Hoeven 
as one of the Managers of the Deli Maatschappy has 
had the conduct of very extensive and successful 
tobacco plantations, and we are glad to welcome a 
gentleman of his experience to our territory. Mr. Van 
Gogh assisted by Mr. Merchistein of Deli is also on the 
look out for tobacco land of which there is doubtless 
plenty for all comers and which, thanks to our climate, 
is likely to be a most profitable undertaking. 
Mr. W. A. Vos of Siak together with Mr. Schaper, 
visited Silam in January, and crossing over to the 
Segama found good land on the banks of that river. 
We now learn that the above gentlemen are so satisfied 
with the soil and climate of our territory, that each 
has decided to take up laud for tobacco planting at 
various places, — on the Labuk, the Segaliud, and the 
Segama Rivers ; and we hope to see tobacco planting 
commenced this year at each of these places, which, 
added to the tobacco plantations in Dravel Bay and 
Marudu Bay, will prove very decisively the position to 
be occupied by British North Borneo among the 
tobacco producing countries of the world. 
Attention has already been attracted to the large 
percentage of sugar in the ^Borneo sugar-cane, and 
the Java planters are importing beebit from Borneo 
at high prices. The sugar-cane of Sandakan has al- 
ready received a favourable analytical report and this 
adds interest to the immense size of the canes ex- 
hibited on the Chinese New year's day at Sandakan, 
which, as stated elsewhere, actually reached a height 
of 22' 6." 
COCONUT PLANTING AND CULTIVATION. 
Mandeing. — There are few of our soils of such 
natural fertility, that they may not be profitably 
improved , by the application of manure on an in- 
telligent system, resting on the habits and capa- 
bilities of the cultivated plant. In the coconut 
we have to deal with a plant, that throws out a 
multitude of primary roots radiating in all direc- 
tions from the vertical to the horizontal. In a 
uniform medium these roots always grow outwards 
in a straight line, only turning aside on meeting 
with some impenetrable impediment, such as a 
stone or a root of hardwood. These primary roots 
are of uniform thickness throughout their length, 
generally from one-fourth to one-third of an inch 
in diameter ; thoy are closely studded with buds 
from which the secondaries are derived, and these 
again carry innumerable buds, and branch out inde- 
finitely in all directions. 
The rate at which the primary roots extend, is 
governed entirely by the mechanical condition of 
the soil ; in a light loose soil they sproad with 
f;rcat rapidity, and the inuro stiff and compact the 
soil, the slower the progress. The cultivator has 
only to deal with that part of the soil that is 
within one foot of the surface, and that happens 
to be the chief feeding space of the plant. In all 
newly opened land, a few inches of the surface 
are the richest in plant food, and as a rule more 
easily penetrated by the roots than that lower, thus 
the surface soil becomes matted with a load of 
interlaced roots, while the primaries at a greater 
depth and in a denser medium, make little or no 
progress till the upper soil is utterly denuded of 
fertility. In such cases, should cultivation be in- 
troduced, it must be done by destroying this whole 
mass of roots, to the depth of from six to eight 
inches, but if cultivation be begun with the begin- 
ning, all will be different. The operations neces- 
sary to consign the primary roots to a depth 
where they will not be interfered with in the 
future course of cultivation, is performed by trench- 
ing a circle six feet in diameter, and two mamo- 
ties deep, round each plant within the first year. 
The first mamoty on the surface should be reversed 
in the bottom of the trench, and the second placed 
above it, the surface soil will thus be placed at 
a depth of nine or ten inches, and no primary 
roots will seek to run in the poorer superincum- 
bent soil. As the extremities of the roots ap- 
proach the circumference of the trenched circle, 
an additional two feet all round should be treated 
in the same way, and repeated as often as required 
till the various circles meet across the spaces, or 
if the planter prefers it, he may trench the whole 
of the land at once, and have done with it, which 
will in the course of a few years, save in weed- 
ing the B20 per acre so expended. 
It may be objected that this work will not 
pay, and it certainly would not if the trees 
struggled into bearing between the tenth and 
twentieth year, and afterwards only yielded annual 
crops of 2,000 nuts per acre, or less. The 
operation recommended above will, however, give 
such freedom to the extension of the roots, that 
the growth of the plants will be so very much 
more rapid, that the early trees will begin to 
bear in the sixth year, and the latest will bear 
by the tenth and bear very differently from trees 
that have to contend with an unbroken soils. 
Besides the trenching, there is no work of 
importance during the first four or five years, 
except helping on lagging plants, with little nitro- 
genous manure, but when the stems begin 
to show above the surface, 56 lb of cattle- 
shed manure, or 15 lb. of poonac, or 21 lb of fish 
manure per tree, or any other nitrogenous equivalent 
will be of immense service in hastening maturity. 
A young coconut tree will generally begin to 
flower when it has a head of from 20 to 25 
leaves, but it is generally admitted that our low- 
country soils are almost universally deficient 
in phosphate, the most important of all the 
elements to the abundance and perfection of all 
kinds of fruit and seed. It is no presumption to 
assume this deficiency as an established fact : 
therefore, the prudent planter will furnish his trees 
with a supply as soon as they arrive at the stage 
of making demands on the soil for this element. 
One pound of bone dust probably contains the 
phosphatic requirements of 30 medium-sized nuts. 
Thus, if the tree will naturally yield average 
annual crops of 30 nuts, 5 lb. of bone dust will carry 
it up to an annual yield of 80 for three years, if 
there is no deficiency of any other of its specific 
elements in the soil. The cost and application of 
5 lb. of bone dust is from 25 to 30 cents, or 
say as an extreme figure B20 per acre against 
a return in three years of 10,000 nuts, but as to 
make this return, the tree, with all its parts and 
