EXPERIMENTS WITH COCONUT PALMS 
11 
may be added for transporting, mixing, and applying the fertilizer, 
which would bring the total cost to between 20 and 30 cents per 
palm. If the production of the first period is taken as the normal 
production, an assumption fairly well supported by the subsequent 
record of the check, the increase in production following fertilization 
was insufficient to cover the expenditure involved except with 
abnormally high prices prevailing for coconuts. 
The variation in total number of nuts produced per palm in the 
course of the experiments is shown diagrammatically in Figure 5. 
The 20 lowest yielders among the palms produced 2,161 nuts, in 
contrast with a production of 6,938 nuts by the 20 highest yielders. 
For every nut produced by the former, 3.2 nuts were produced by the 
latter. Although the palms occupied the same area of land, those 
in one fifth of the whole area were worth more than three times as 
much as those in another fifth. 
The 25 lowest yielders, or one-quarter of the number included in 
the experiment, produced 2,930 nuts, whereas the 25 highest yielders 
produced 8,357 nuts. Thus, one quarter of the palms were almost 
Nuts 
520 
<*80 
*4hO 
*00 
360 
320 
280 
2*0 
200 
160 
120 
80 
*0 

ii 
li 
Figure 5. — Variation in total nut production per palm, in 20 harvests at Corsica 
plantation. Each line represents the nuts produced by one palm 
three times as valuable as another quarter. Table 2 shows the fer- 
tilizer treatments and the distribution in the plats of the 25 lowest 
and of the 25 highest yielding palms at Corsica. 
Table 2. — Fertilizer treatments and distribution among the plats of the least 
productive and of the most productive palms at Corsica 
Fertilizer applied per palm 
Distribution among the 
plats of the — 
Plat No. 
Ammonium 
sulphate 
Superphos- 
phate 
Potassium 
sulphate 
Potassium 
chloride 
Sodium 
chloride 
• 
25 least 
productive 
palms 
25 most 
productive 
palms 
1 
Pounds 
2 
2 
2 
2 

Pounds 
2 
2 
2 
2 

Pounds 

2 



Pounds 


2 


Pounds 



nu 

Number 
4 
5 
5 
7 
4 
Number 
5 
8 
2 
2 
8 
2 
3 
4 
5 
The distribution of the palms shows in them a tendency to produce 
much or little, unrelated to the kind of fertilizer applied. Their 
production by periods is shown in Figure 4. The high yield of the 
