July i, 1891.] 
73 
""™' "' " .. . ™ . " .ll.UI -,T'J!"M •—•Sll 
A MONOGRAPH OF THE COCONUT PALM 
(COCOS NUCIFERA). 
ILLUSTRiTED BY JOHN 8H0ETT, M.D., F.L.S., &C., (to. 
Dr. Sbortfc'a monograph of the coconut palm is like 
himself short, and tolerably ii.nocent. A review 
of it, therefore, sliould be ehort. aud innocent like it- 
self. We will accept the author's statement of fac'e 
as correct, and merely point out wh»re locfil experi- 
ences, opiniuns ai'd practice differ from 1 i i reports. 
Our author tells us, that the c )count tree grow 
to the usual height anii fruits freely at a height of 
'8,000 feet in India. In Ceylon we have no thriving 
coconuts at an elevation of 3,000 fe t, and the limit 
of profitable cultivation is 1,000 feel lower. Mere 
elevation IS not, however, our rule in choosing our 
locality: temperature and rat' fall are cur mea-^urea of 
Buuable climate. There is no tempe ature in Ceylon 
too high, aud our lowest limit is an annua average 
temperature of 75° ; our lowest limit of rainfall 
for successful ouitiv^ition is 70 inches more or le-s 
falling every month of the year, and our highest 
limit is 100 inches, for though the coconut rejoices in 
moisture, it detests saturation. 
Alluvial fluta are our richest soils undoutedly, but 
the true coconut soil is 70 per cent ot fine sano, 30 
percent light loam and organic matter; but the cabook 
soils ot our uuduluting uplands are not to be des- 
pised, especially, as we have compsrstively little 
other kinils to draw on. We have still people who 
plant clay* and swampsi to their own ultimate loss. 
80 trees is the numbtr onr author allots to an acre; 
but whether he or the printer's devil is responsible 
for the error, the book says that 80 trees in an acre 
will stand 60 feet apart. At 60 feet spart, an acre 
will contain 1215 trees to the acre, and 80 trees per 
acre will stand 231 feet apart on the square, 'ibe 
most common distance in Oejlon estates is 25 feet 
on the square, or 70 trees p r acre. This we find, a 
Bound practical distance apart, for most of ous' soils. 
We know one large e^tato planted at 30 by 30, but 
it is a speciality iu soil and lay of laud. It is 6 rather 
loose way of treating this subject, to say, " In a 
well ordered plantation, the trees should be from 30 
to 40 feet ftp«rt." 2^ by 23J feet gives 80 trees per 
'lore, and <"i good soils t' ig is too close, 25 bi 25 
f et gives 70 ,69-53), 3C b 30 feet gives 43-4 and 40 by 
40 leel giv. a 27'47. Thus very neiirly tiirc-e tiinex as 
m:;ny pl.mts go into an acre 23^ by 23^ as at 40 by 
40 There is no p. irt of the coconut region of Ceylon 
in wh'ch the planter b uefiis himself by puttiiig more 
th^u 70 or less ihan 50 plants m an acre. 
The author's diiections for selecting seed nuts are, 
to gather from tree- 16 to 20 yesrs old fully ripe; 
gathi red between February and May, the largest pro- 
curable well form .d, the husks dried before plucking 
to be lowered from the tree in a basket and to be 
kept for six weeks, betore being laid out in the nursery. 
This is a subject that has hitherto met with liitle 
attention in (Jejlon. The all but universal practice 
has been, to select seed from a heap gathered in the 
usual course. It is however a very importaou matter, 
and one that deserves the most csirelul study. It is 
from oar ele3.'^n^ss here that we see su h inequality in 
our fields, inequalities not due to difi"nrence of soil, 
or treatment, but cbiefiy to jat. This author tells 
us, that in India (Travaucore) there are thirty named 
varieties. In Ceylou there are a vast number of 
nameless varieties, very difficult to describe, but ver.> 
clear to one who lives among them, and sees them 
daily. One tree begios to flower in its fifth year, on 
four feel of siem ; its neiireBt neighi our equally 
vigorous, runs up 'O fifteen or even twenty feet, and 
only begins to flower in the ninth or tenth year; One 
will have fertile germs on its first flower; aud its 
neighbour win t,ru,;uc6 only barren flowers for twelve 
months; one will, within a year of opening its first 
flower, fall i to a regular .^i» ld of 100 nuta per auouru, 
* In 1881 when wo vifited Mr. Chuaseriau's great 
manioc plantation in Singapore, he was cutting down 
coconut trees whiuh, at twelve years old gave no 
promise of fruit. It struck us at the time th«t the 
o»use was the olayoy nature of the soil.— Ed. 2 , .4 , 
[ of niocliDm size ; while another close by carries from 30 
to 40, very large ones, and the next in the same line, 
carries above 200 very smill ones. Then in the size, 
colour, and form, of the fruit, the e are hardly two trees 
so alike, as not; to be distinguished from each other, 
sjome ot the directions given are good, some usolesa, 
and some bad. Th.' first conditon, is that the nut 
selected for seed should be Pound nnd ripe, it should be 
taiien from a strong, early, and heavy bearing tree, with- 
out reft rence to its age, it should be of meruum size, of 
oval shape, with thin bus", and the green colour iu 
generally best. The shorter the leaf stalk the better 
and there is no objection to lower it in a basket, but it 
should not be left to dry on the tree, and may be plan- 
led SB soon as gathered. The best soil for a nursery bed 
IS light loamy sand. It ia not necessary to place the 
nuts so wide apart as one foot, or to make raised beds, 
but the beds should be shaded and watered occa- 
eiorie.Uy in dry weather for sis months. After the 
plant has opened its first two leaves all shade is 
injurious. 
If in south-west Ceylon the conditions were such 
as to require that the pi >nt3 should be shaded and 
watered after being planted out in the fields, we 
would never have had the ?!0.000,000 of trees we are 
credited with.* Shading wedonot find, either necessary 
or useful ; and to water our undulating uplands is 
simply impracticable. If the planting ia dene in the 
little monsoon from eighty to ninety per cent survive 
the fir-t succeeding dry season. Holes can hardly be 
made too deep or too wide, but to ' bring one to two 
cubic feet of sand to pufe into each, is utterly imprac- 
ticable, at B paying cost. Neither salt Lior ashes are 
bare to white anis, and to throw a quantity of vegetable 
rubbish into the boles by way of keeping in the 
moisture is to create the nucleus of an aut-hill round 
the plant. The best prijctioal plan here is to dig a hole 
say three feet cube, fiii it in to the depth of 18 inches 
with surface soil, place the plant so that the 
crown of the root, shall be one foot below the 
Burf iica ; then at intervals ot three or four months 
fill !n two or three inches, by breaking down the sides 
oi the holes. 
There is no doabt that by keeping the soil in a good 
mechanical condition, applying small quantities of 
manure, from time to time, and frequent watering in 
dry weather, the trees may be brought'i into flower in 
five years, but this is a costly style of cultivation, better 
suited to the village owner of au acre or two, who 
performs all the operations by the labour of his own 
tamily, than to a largo concern, where every storko 
of work, has to be paid for iu hard o;)Sh, and the cost 
of watering is prohibitive. Among all our lar,ae coco- 
nut proprietors, there is only one, who combined the 
eomniftud of a perennial river, and sufiicieut capital, 
with pluck and intelligence eoough, to carry out an 
irrixation work, tliatsupplies unfailing moi.«ture to 700 
acres of land. But alter «11, water is only one requi- 
site of high cultiviition, and will only yield its beat 
results, in combination with the other necessary works 
and appliance. 
On light deep soil, with proper cultivation, an 
average of 100 nuts per tree is by no mesna an out- 
side ef^timate, There are alluvial flats that y'eld 
twice thnt amount, and large extents of level loamy 
sands, that seldom average less ; and even 
on less favoured spots, bigh cultivation will 
bring the average, well oi towards that num- 
ber. If we cannot estimate the yield of a!! the 
mature trees in Caylon at a higher average than 
20 nuts per annum the result is due fo tbe w nt. of 
cuitivaiioii. t There nre means open to scientific in. 
dustry, by wbi(^h otiy tree that bears 20 nuts may be 
made to bear 100. These means are stated by our author 
thus : — "A woil kept, plautntion should be manured once 
a year, * * * The soil should be freely ploughed 
up, and kept loose and brokpu." To these two heroic 
* Oar inolinnt on is to believe in a number n or i 
neaai ly aproachiug 30 to 40 millions of trees in all 
eta^'es.— Ed. T A. 
t Aud over-orowdii g iu native gardetia. — Ed. T. A. 
