April 1, 1902.] THE TK0PICAL AGRICtJLTURIST. 
663 
account of the revolution in that country. "Under 
ordinary conditions, " writes the consul, " the raising 
of coconuts is au interest of considerable magnitude, 
and a fair amount of attention is bestowed upon the 
groves and the collection, husking, sorting, and pack- 
ing of the unts. It may be said that, with rice, the 
coconut is the main source of food supply of the 
natives of the coast, 
"Owing to the above-mentioned conditions, the 
extent of che coconut crop of this district is unknown. 
Coconuts are grown both for home consumption 
and export. They are not shipped in the husk. The 
price at the present time is from $12 to S14 gold per 
tboasand. 
" Coconut plantations in the Colon district of 
Colombia are contiued to a strip of laud contiguous 
to the Atlantic Coast, and to the Island of San 
Andres, belonging to Colombia, lying about 275 miles 
from Colon in a north-westerly direction. There are no 
plantations in the interior. On the coast, by far the 
greater proportion of coconuts is raised by the San 
Bias Indians, on a strip of country about 125 miles long 
extending from Point San Bias to Point Tiburon. Be- 
sides the plantations owned by these Indians, there is 
only one other on the coast — the Caribbean Coconut 
Plantation, at Point Toro, across the bay from Colon, 
This plantation consists of about 20,00C trees. 
"The entire coconut crop of the coast amounts to 
about 4,000,000 nuts a year ; that of the Island of San 
Andres to about 2,500,000. 
" Uoconut trees are rnised by first putting the dry 
nut on the ground and allowing it to sprout until it 
attains a height of about two feet. The nut is then 
put in a hole just deep enough to receive it, the 
sprout remaining above ground. The only attention 
the palm requires is to keep it free from weeds and 
other plants until it is five or six years old. After 
this age it ii able to protect itself, and the ground 
requires very little cieaning. Trees pruperly attended 
to will bear in from five to six years. 
" All nuts raised in this district are sent to the 
United States. They are never shipped in busk. The 
market price fluctuates between $21 and $iO per thou- 
sand. From March to September, it rarely reaches 
more than $26; from September to March, |25 to $40. 
CocNUTs IN Ecuador. 
"The cultivation of coconuts receives very little 
attention in Ecuador, most of the palms being grown 
as side issues upon the various estates. The few raised 
are for local consumption only : none are shipped. 
The price is 10 cents silver (4| cents, in United States 
onrrency) per nut, retail. 
Coconuts in the Guianas. 
" The coconut crop of British Guiana amounts to 
about 5,000,000 nuts annually. The cultivation of 
coconuts receives considerable attention in the district 
of Mahaicony, about 30 miles up the east coast from 
Georgetown, in the vicinity of the Deoerara and Ber- 
bioe Railway. The nuts are mostly made into oil at 
the oil and fibre mills at Mahaicony, and the prodnct 
is sold and consumed in the colony. Less than 2.000 
husked nuts were exported last year. These were 
shipped to the British West India Islands. 
" The prevailing price in the local market is from 
f 8 to $10 per thousand. 
" Only about 50 000 nuts per annum are produced 
in Dutch Guiana, and an insiynifioant number in 
French Guiana. These are consumed locally. 
Coconut in Venezuela. 
" At La Guayra, the annual crop of coconuts amounts 
to about 1,000,000. At Barcelona and Comana, how- 
ever, it is much larger ; the latter could easily furnish 
5,000,000 nuts a year. The cultivation of coconuts 
receives very little attention in La Guayra, and practi- 
cally no efiorts are made to extend their growth; 
There is no reason, however, why the present area 
shonld not be increased, as the palm thrives wonder- 
fully along the coast, and nearly all of the land within 
half a mile or a mile of the sea could be utilised. 
The nuts grown in the La Guayra district are mostly 
9,brorbed by the local retail trade of the cities of La 
Guayra and Caracas, a great many being sold to the 
natives who drink the milk. The nut is also used for 
cooking, confectionery, etc. In Cumana, most of the 
crop is manufactured into oil. This oil is said to be of 
an excellent quality. A few nuts are occasionally 
shipped from La Guayra to the United States, but the 
trade is not profitable. The harbour dues on all kinds 
of freight is §4 a ton, and planters find that it pays 
thembttter to hold the nuts for local consumption. 
O'jconuts are never shipped in the husk. 
"In La Guayra the price of coconuts is from $2'50 
to $5 gold per hundred : in Cumana, from $2 to $3. 
" The production of coconuts in the Puerto Oabello 
district of Venezuela is limited, as there are but few 
trees. Very little attention is paid to their cultivation 
and the supply is decreasing. The soil, however, s 
excellent for the growth of this palm. 
'■ The nuts are marketed here green for the coconut 
water they contain ; ripe, for the meat, from which oil 
for soap-making and other purposes is extracted, and 
as cop'-a, for foreign shipment. The s;reen coconuts 
are sold for 1 cent each, ripe ones at about the same 
price, and copra for about 2^ cents per pound.— l7tcZia« 
Gardening and Plantmg. 
TROPICAL TIMBERS AND THEIR 
RINGS OF GROWTH. 
■With reference to Mr. Herbert Wright's paper in the 
Tropical AqriculfAorist of last October, we reproduce 
the following article on " The Eings of Trees," re- 
printed from Ameiican Gardeninii : — 
THE KINSS OF TUEES. 
The follo'.<;ing interesting article by Mr. H. H. Chap- 
man, of Grand tapids, Minnesota, in American Gar- 
dening, should be read in conjunction with Mr. Herbert 
Wright's valuable contribution, " Tropical Timbers 
and their Rings of Growth, " whmh appeared in our 
issue of 22ud August 1901. 
Every tree has its life-history securely locked up in 
its heart. Each year of i's growth a thiii ring of wood 
is formed next to the bark and a corresponding layer 
of bark adjoining it. As the tree swells and swells, 
the bark is foroed outward and splits into wide fissures. 
Much of it falls off altogether, but each ring of wood 
remains a faithful record of the year in which it was 
formed. When the axe or saw of the woodman ends 
the life of the tree and brings its body crashing to the 
earth, this record is unrolled before ua, and by it we 
can determine almost every incident in the life and 
growth of the tree. 
Trees as well as human beings have their period of 
struggle and hardship, their prosperous times, their 
terrible misfortunes and hairbreadth escapes, their in- 
juries, and recoveries : their complete submergence in 
a otruggle in which the odds were too great for their 
feeble strength to cope with. 
Here is a sturdy oak, whose tale revealed is that o 
steady perseverance in the face of diffiuulties— a slow 
gradual growth, never checked, never daunted, till tha 
final goal is reached and it stands supreme, literally 
monarch of all it surveys. 
Here is a mighty spruce which has a tale of per- 
severance, but of a different sort. The oak conquers 
by force of character by its fighting, qualities. The 
spruce succeeds by its ability to endure. It is like the 
patient Jew, frugal living on what would be starvation 
to others, till when their d«y of strength is past, and 
sudden disaster overtakes them, he enters into his in- 
heritance and prospers amazingly. 
See the record of this spruce— fifty, sixty, seventy 
years, each represented by a ring so small that i t 
takes great care to distinguish them at all, and the 
whole seventy do not occu, y the space of three inches 
at the heart of the tree. What a tale of hardship this 
sets forth. Other trees have pre-empted the light in 
which the existenee of a tree depends. The poor 
spruce must be content with the twilight that filters 
through the branches of its enemies, the popular, birch 
Bnd pine. Bat it is content. It knows that the yonng 
