July i, 1891.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTU R!ST, 
67 
6th. That the ouUivated plants will developa 
more in the subsequent twelve months, than ia 
any previous twenty-four. 
Number one has been accepted as theoretically 
probable ; all the others have been established 
experimentally, with results, far beyond original 
expectation. Plants with a head of from ten to 
twelve leaves, and that had not besun to show stem, 
began to flower in from twelve to fifteen months, 
and at the end of two years carried crops of 
from forty to over one hundred nuts. Plants 
whose longest leaves did not exceed six feet, and 
that had made no visible progress for two 
previous years, two years after the digging had 
heads up to sixteen leaves, the last fully developed 
eighteen feet, and beginning to show stem. Cases 
where simple digging has been complicated with 
the application of manure will not count in this 
argument though they prove that manuring and 
digging combined yield results almost marvelloas. 
On young trees that were just getting their stems 
clear of the ground, au expenditure of 27 cents 
was incurred, many of them flowered within a 
year, most of them within a year aud half of the 
application ; they are carrying crops seldom seen 
except on old trees standing on the choicest spots 
of soil. 
It is B fair inference ftom such results, that if, 
instead of beginning in the seventh year as in 
this case, digging were inaugurated in the first 
year, and the circles widened as the roots extended, 
several years would be gained in the time of 
bearing especially if the digging"? were supplemented 
with two cents worth of nitrogenous manure. 
About thirty-sis cubic inches of cattle-shed manure 
has been found very useful in bringing forward 
supplies. There are five conditions that cither 
singly or in various combinations prevent coconuts 
from bearing before the end of the seventh year: — 
The Ist of these retarding conditions ia a feeble 
slow-growing plant. The remedy is to take it out, 
and replace it with a healthy one. 
2nd. A. BtiH compact soil, through which the 
main roots make only slow way, and branohlets 
carrying the feeding points still slower. The 
remedy is to break up such soil, by digging, as 
often as may be required. 
3rd. A very poor soil, that is deficient in the 
necessary elements for the development of the 
plant. This may be remedied by the application of 
suitable manure, but a better plan is to avoid 
planting such land. 
4th. A periodical deficiency of moisture. For 
this there is no generally applicable remedy, but 
a pulverized soil resists drought better than an 
unbr' ken one, and bo far the evil may be modi- 
fied.* 
6th. The neglect that permits other plants, as 
jungle and lantana, to interfere with the develop- 
ment of the plant, both above and below ground. 
The remedy for this is the complete extermination 
of every plant that has no right in the ground 
allotted to the coconut by beariiag no economic 
value to balance the ill it does. 
If the land bo oponed on the goyiya system 
it will be a direct saving of expense to the 
land owner, of nearly R30 per acre, and 
his shnre of the crops may be worth 
from RIO to R20 The goyiya system being a 
merely utp'ating one it ia very doubtful whether 
its adoption is any gain in the end. The goyiya's 
labour is paid for out o£ the fertility of the land, 
• For two reasons ; a free open soil is not only 
saturated by rain, when it falls, and permeable by 
dew, but is fitted by capill jry atttaotion to draw on 
the reserve stores of moisture in ihe subsoil, when 
the surface fails to be visited by rain or dew.— Ed. T, A, 
and it seems probable, that the retention of the 
elements so removed wou'.d benefit the pwr- 
maoent crop more, than the immediate gain would 
compensate, especially ss the go;iys leaves muub 
work to be done, that could ba more bc.neficiully 
performed at an earlier period, and at less easj, 
than it rtquires ultimately. 
Coconut; cultivati<in would ba & much mora 
desirabie investment could it be oombinc-d witji 
some other cuUivation, that would pay indepen- 
dently, for the early breaking up of the soil and 
for 8Uoh manure as it needed on its own aocouni. 
It seems, however, hopeless, to discover even one 
product that will meet those conditions. Every, 
thing produced by native labour, for native cou- 
sumption, is out of court, to one who pays foi 
labour at t,ha current rate of wages. There 
then remein only the markets of the world- 
for such products as they absorb. The pros- 
pect here is not encouraging : the easential oils 
are clearly overdone ; tobaceo is objectionable 
for i'3 exhausting powers, and few coconut 
lands wil grow it at all. Casmva and arrow- 
root are in the same case as essential oils, and 
could only pay on a large scale, with a costly 
manufacturing plant, which with the prices now 
ruling it v^ould be madness to set up. Curiously 
enough, in Ceylon, where the arrowroot plant 
grows freely and yields largely, the lowest price 
is four times as much as the wholesale price in 
London, and in the druggists' shops twelve times 
as much. The local demand, however, is too 
small to encourage anything being done with it 
on coconut estates, as 20 acres of cultivation would 
probably bring down the prices to a non-paying 
point in the local market, even were well-to-do 
colonists not so preposterous as to prefer paying 
five or six hundred per cent mote lor stuff that 
has been through the polluting hands of an English 
tradesman, than for a pure locally produced article. 
Ginger selling from Od to 8d per pound is encoura- 
ging, but it requires a special soil, and cosily 
culture, and is a precarious crop ; it will not, 
therefore, meet the conditions of the coconut 
planter. It is just possible that chillies might be 
grown, and placed in the L ndon market, for the 
price they command there, 20s to a5a per cwt., but on 
their own merit the cultivation is not promising. 
The coconut planter will naturally decline a secon» 
dary culture, risking direct loss on the labour and 
manure used, and promising only remote and 
indirect gain in benefit to the permanent plants. 
There is one other minor product which could be 
cultivated on young coconut estates, with great ad- 
vantage to the coconuts ; but its merits are little 
known to the lo':'al public, and it is the local publie 
on which the grower must chiefly depend. The 
cuah-oush jam requires a tolerably good soil, 
pulverized to ihe depth of a foot, hefivy manuring, 
and a forest of long poles to run on. The ouhivatioa 
is therefore a most costly one, aud has hitherto 
only been tried on experimental patches ; but if it 
were foupd to sell readily at a paying price it 
would no doubt ba gone into largely. Those who 
are acquainted with it admit it to be not inferior to 
the beat potatoes, and some people even prefer it to 
that universally approved tuber. This plant was 
only ini,rod;iced to the Western Province a few yeara 
itgo, and the only fact fuhy ascertained is its refusal 
to respond to anything short of a high and costly 
cultivation.* 
* Where di.i it coine trom and what is the origin 
of the queer name •' oush cush " ? Is it jast the 
Wost luilian jam? or a local variety? The Jaffna 
purple yam is a magnificeut root, very tasty, especially 
when butler ii added, and wo should say it must be. 
very nutritious.— Ed. T. 4-' 
