694 tHP. TROPICAL 
their power of ripening. I have never seen a coco- 
nut tree produce a fertile flower with a head of less 
than twenty green leaves, and the most vigorous 
often have a head of thirty before they show a 
spathe. That early maturity is inconsistent with 
longevity is one of those closet maxims that is 
not confirmed by experience in the field. The earli- 
est bearers, so far as my observation extends, con- 
tinue to keep a foremost place for twenty years 
on a line, and in all probability throughout their 
whole period of life. My young critic may ob- 
ject that this may be true of natural but not 
of forced plants. Let us clearly understand what 
rneauiDg we respectively attach to the word 
forcing. If he holds that digging and manuring is 
forcing, then we are at one and understand each 
other. There are spots of land that are topographi- 
cally, mechanically, and chemically perfect. Did any 
man ever object to plant coconuts on such land 
because of its forcing qualities? I think not. To 
break up and manure land of inferior quality is 
only a feeble and imperfect endeavour to supply some 
part of those qualities that the other has by nature. 
If the introduction of a limited supply of fertilizing 
elements into a poor soil is so adverse to the staying 
power of the coconut tree, it seems to me to follow 
that a soil naturally rich beyond all that art can do 
for a poor one will be much more adverse to longevity 
than the poor one that can only be kept up 
to the mark by repeated applications of manure. If 
it has been observed as a rule, that trees on natur- 
ally rich soil die off early, then I am shut up, and 
will confess my error. If, however, it should be proved 
that the trees on such land yield larger crops at 
fifty than they did at twenty years, I will hold to 
my system of digging and manuring inferior soil up 
to the measure of my means, without the fear of those 
operations promoting premature defunction. I could 
not sit down content with an annual average yield 
of 20 nuts from a mature tree after having seen the 
yield of such trees increased five-fold at a cost that left 
a handsome profit. 
It is matter for regret that the price of annatto has 
come so low, that to anyone paying for the small 
amount of labour it demands a loss would accrue. 
A few great bushes of this Bixa orellana near my 
bungalow are breaking down under the weight of 
their crop, though thousands of the bunches of pods, 
have rotted before they ripened in all this wet weather. 
I have a couple of divi-divi trees, six year old, that 
each shade a circle of twenty feet in diameter, and for 
the last three years have been periodically covered 
with flowers, yet give no fruit ; I begin to fancy that 
that they are more ornamental than useful. 
There is a good crop of pepper on a few vines, I 
have growing on forest trees, but it obstinately refuses 
to ripen, though the succeeding crop is already well 
forward, the heavy shade, and the superabundant 
moisture being the culprit. 
PALMYEA TIMBEE. 
We have repeatedly advocated in this journal a 
more extended cultivation of the palmyra palm 
and have pointed out how many useful purposes 
may thereby be served. We have been inclined 
to lay the greater stress on this recommendation, 
because, owing to many causes, there has of late 
years been an absence of effort to replace by plant- 
ing the vast number of these trees which have 
from time to time been destroyed, either in the 
course of road extension or for the sake of the 
price which can be obtained for thoir timber for 
construction purposes, locally and for export. It is 
not, perhaps, generally recognised that this timber 
is possessed of a strength surpassing that of nearly 
every other wood. A good many years ago now, 
AGRICULTURIST. [April i, 1889. 
very full experiments were made by Mr. Byrne of 
the Public Works Department to test the relative 
strength of the varied descriptions of timber either 
grown in, or imported into this island from abroad. 
The modus operandi of these experiments was as 
follows :— From the soundest wood obtainable, 
pieces two feet long and of a square inch in 
section were cut. These were supported in such a 
way that each piece tried had a bearing of one 
inch at either end. A special hook of iron exactly 
fitting on the section, and so made that the 
trial weight applied hung exactly below its 
centre, was placed on the wood, and from this 
was suspended gradually increasing weight until the 
breaking point was reached. The result was to 
establish the fact that palmyra was possessed of 
a pre-eminence in strength even over the 
finest procurable specimens of Moulmein teak, 
and, indeed, beyond that of any other of the 
several woods experimented with. We have heard 
it stated that the fracturing of the palmyra was 
attended by a curious circumstance which would 
doubtless add a value to the use of it for con- 
structive purposes. It invariably gave audible warn- 
ing of approaching fracture some little time before 
finally yielding. As is the case with all palms, 
the structure of the timber is composed of in- 
dependent fibres, these being embedded in a sort 
of pith which hardens as the tree approaches 
maturity until it acquires almost the density of 
the fibres themselves. These last, in the case of 
the palmyra palm, look exceedingly like magnified 
elephant hairs. They are unbroken in their course 
from the top of the tree to the root, and are laid 
spirally with a slow twist throughout their whole 
length. Some of these fibres are naturally weaker 
than the others, and in every case some of these 
broke during the experiment cited with a loud and 
sharp report some time before the mass of them 
gave way. From this cause it is always possible 
to learn when timber is being unduly strained 
before the final rupturing factor is reached, so 
affording a warning which might in very many 
presumable cases prevent serious accident. 
In the southern parts of Ceylon this timber has 
been but little used, for it is comparatively scarce 
within them;* but in the north of the island it has for 
centuries been used for roof and bridge construction 
almost to the entire exclusion of any other timber. 
The old Dutch residences of Jaffna have roofs 
framed with it, and unsupported by trusses, of 
a span which is quite unknown in practice among 
us here in the South. The adoption of such 
unsupported space is, of course, to be condemned, 
as the outward thrust upon the walls is very 
dangerously increased ; but the fact that roofs 
constructed of them have stood safely for a century 
and more evidences how great is the strength of 
palmyra and how lasting its high qualities are. 
For purposes for which additional strength beyond 
that obtained from single scantlings is desired, 
such as the bearers of bridge platforms, &c, two 
or more such scantlings are trenailed together, 
and if these be of sound timber and are closely 
joined they are as free from internal decay as 
any beam of other timber cut from the solid can 
be. There is, however, one disqualification to 
this timber which to some extent militates against 
its employment for certain purposes, and that is 
* We were glad to notice recently that a large 
quantity of seeds had been obtained for trial in the 
Hambantota district. 
