Oct. 1, 1899.] THE TEOPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
239 
COCONUT CULTIVATION. 
MANURING, 
I had the privilege lately of diacnssinB; the above 
Bubject with a veteran, and as his opinions are en- 
titled to mnch weight as being those of one of the 
foremost coconut planters, j I trnst he will pardon 
me for making them public and for discussing them. 
Apart from the fact that his long experience, his 
well-known intelligence andhisclose observation entitle 
his views to respectful consideration, his having been 
a pupil of the late Mr. Davidson of Jaffna in early 
youth and imbibed the wealth of scientific wisdom 
which places that gentleman far above his fellows 
then or since, is an additional recommendation in his 
favour. 
My friend holds very decided views that ooconnt 
rees should be manured every alternate yec-r. That 
if manured at longer intervals, it represents to a 
large extent money thrown away, as a large proportion 
of the manure goes towards helping the trees to 
regain lost ground and a small proportion to putting 
on crop. In his experience he has found ashes a 
valuable, nay indispensable, fertiliser for coconuts, 
and trees which responded in a sort of way to the 
application of castor cake and bones, showed wonderful 
results as soon as ashes were added to the mixture. 
By a systematic and intelligent system of manuring 
ho has known an estate increase its yields, not in 
one leap of course, but gradually to three times its 
old average yield. The system was for half the 
trees to be manured one year and half tlie next. 
The manure used was castor-cake, bones and ashes. 
In addition to that, the husks were carted to th* 
fields and the husks of about 50 coconuts were drop- 
ped between every four trees and together with all 
the branches, were burnt and the ashes spread over 
the ground. This was done from end to end of the 
estate with the results indicated above. 
I may be pardoned the tenacity and the presump- 
tion of discussing the views of so high an authority. 
But no one more than he will appreciate the good 
resulting from such discussion, and the unwisdom 
of blindly following a system simply because it is 
practised by an acknowledged authority. Circums- 
tances alter the «xperience of different persons and 
the observation of one man may not be in accord 
with another. j . , , 
I am at one with my friend that it is desirable and 
more than desirable, necessary, that half an estate 
should be manured one year aud half the next. But 
I would say as a general and not invariable rule. 
Experience and observation show that a sandy and 
therefore hungry soil takes up manure very much 
faster than a heavy soil with body, or to be mora 
precise, coconut trees growing on a sandy soil 
derive benefit from an application of manure very 
much quicker than .trees growing on a heavy soil 
and in proportion to the quickness of the benefit 
is the quickness with which the results disappear. 
I therefore think that the rule of my friend is a 
necessity on a light, sandy soil, and is not so much 
of a necessity as a desirability cn a heavy soil. On such 
a soil, digging it up and mixing it can be resorted to in 
the interval between two manurings. 
However desirable or even necessary frequent 
manurings are, it is not everyone that can manage 
to manure half of his estate annually. Many cir- 
cumstances, not necessary to be detailed, will stand 
in his way. Under such circumstances the object of 
the Planter should be to try to minimize the 
acknowledged running down of the trees, i think 
this could best be done by the use of such ferti- 
lizers as yield comparatively slow results. In my 
opinion, bone meal is one such. Bone in its raw 
state is insoluble or not readily soluble. In contact 
with the soil and the moisture in it, it decomposes 
slowly, the length of time depending on the minute- 
ness o'f the particle and the composition and quality 
of the soil, among other causes. It is generally 
believed that bones are of value chiefly, if not entirely, 
according to the phosphates in their composition. This 
ia to a certain extent true, but bones in their decay 
yield ammonia which assists the action of the 
phosphate of lime. I have always he'd consistently 
to the opinion that quick-acting manures are of 
value chiefly in the cultivation of annuals, where 
the result are required in a given time. For the 
cultivation of perennials, and especially of cooonr.ts, 
slow-acting manuress are the most desirable. The 
trees are not stimulated to heavy-bearing and then 
quickly fall off, the bearing is steady, even and 
continuous. It is for this reason, I do not favour 
the use of steamed bones or of super-phosphate for 
coconuts. When raw b^oes are used, the effect is 
spread over a number of years and after a few 
applications, the quantity of available phosphates and 
ammonia in the soil will, it necessity become 
large, and the benefit to the trees will be in pro- 
portion. 
Now as to the value of ashes as a manure, there 
are now two opinions. Their composition is depend- 
ent on the substance of which they are the result. 
Mr. Cochran has mac'e known the great value of 
the ashes of husks, and people can easily i-ealise by 
the light of his analysis, to what extent their soils 
are being impoverished by the removal of husks or 
their non-return to the soil in the way practised by 
my friend. Would roteconoiny be attained by cxrting 
to the field the ashes of husks instead of husks in 
bulk ? I am not of those who believe in the 
fertilising properties of manure ; but I b'-lieve 
in the value of fires at nights in co'onut fields. 
They help to attract and destroy injurious in- 
sects, such as red-beetles aud the moths of cater- 
pillars. 
I have heard 
THE PRAISES OF ASHES 
aung very loudly but unfortunately my experience 
with them hardly accords with that of others. I 
know an estate where the branches had been burnt 
between the trees for a number of years. The 
ground was black with ashes. Anxious t3 see the 
extent to which the roots of the coconut tree availed 
themselves of this rich store of manure, I had the 
ground dug. My disappointment was great when I 
came across a few straggling rootlets and not the 
mass of rootlets within the experience of others. I 
have had ashes lying in heaps between coconut 
trees and yet they were not attacked by the rootlets 
in anything like the way in which a heap of cattle 
manure or any other heap of decaying vegetable 
matter with a lot of moisture in it is attacked. I 
have often wondered how roots lake up the fertilising 
matter in ashes when so few are seen to attack 
them. Again I have applied wood ashes and the 
ashes of coconut branches in large quantities of 
from two to three basketfuls to coconut trees both 
by themselves and in conjunction with castor-caka 
and bones with no striking results. 
My exparience has been that there is no applica- 
tion for coconut trees to equal 
THE DROPPINGS OP CATFLE 
under the t?i-ees. I have tied one animal for ten 
days to trees that had been neglected and not 
manured for a number of years and growing oa 
poor white sand and the re.snlts were such as to uiak« 
me most enthusiastic on the benefit of droppings. The 
branches of these trees were of a yellow, sickly hue 
and the bearing was being reduced to zero. Within 
six months tjpe trees were carrying dark, green hea(^s 
and commenced to throw out larga b osioms. Th« 
effect, as regards crop, lasted for two years, as the 
trees were weakly, but the colour of the foliage did 
not relapse to its original colour. My method was to 
tie the cattle to the trees without removing any snil 
and then to dig in the droppings after rain had 
washed in the ammonia. I think digging in before 
rain has washed in the ammonia, will help to dissi- 
pate it. I am inclined to think that this most en- 
couraging result is due almost entirely to the urine. 
The solid excrements of ten nights from ordinary 
village cattle that are grazed on poor pasturage, 
hardly equals two basketfuls. It will be useful to 
find out what the composition of the urine of cattle 
is to enable us to make up a mixture to resemble 
31 
