8 BULLETIN 3 4, PORTO RICO EXPERIMENT STATION 
CORSICA PLANTATION 
In 1922 a fertilizer experiment with coconut palms was begun at 
Corsica, P. R., on a plantation owned at the time by Cesar de 
Chudens and later by Jose Gonzalez. The plantation was chosen 
because the palms there were mature though not very old, evidently 
not in maximum production although in fair condition, and as uni- 
form as were to be found in that locality. The palms were said to be 
about 16 years old. They were growing in a sandy loam, typical 
of that usually planted with coconuts. The palms were in rows in 
one direction only, the spacing in the rows not being uniform. The 
average spacing was about 33 feet. The older coconut plantations 
were made with little regard to spacing or alinement. In some of 
the plantings no rows are to be seen, the palms being scattered here 
and there apparently without order or system, and in other plantings 
the palms are somewhat more orderly through alinement in a single 
direction. 
TREATMENT 
« 
A block of 14 rows of palms was selected for the fertilizer tests. 
It was divided into five plats of two rows each, leaving guard rows 
between plats. Each plat contained 20 palms. Owing to the fact 
that the rows of palms ran parallel to the water front, the plats were 
unequally distant from the beach, plat No. 1 being farthest removed 
from, and plat No. 5 nearest to, the water front, about 200 feet 
distant. It is common knowledge that the beach offers particularly 
favorable conditions for coconut palms. In order that a possibly 
higher yield resulting from advantageous location might not be at- 
tributed to fertilization, the plat nearest to the beach was selected as 
the check and left untreated. Although this did not constitute a satis- 
factory check, the arrangement seemed to be advisable at the time. 
Fertilizers were applied twice annually from March, 1922, to July, 
1928, making 14 applications in all. Except on three occasions the 
applications were made in January and in July. Each fertilized 
palm, plats Nos. 1 to 4, inclusive, received 2 pounds of ammonium 
sulphate and 2 pounds of superphosphate at each application. In 
addition to this, each palm in plat No. 2 received 2 pounds of potas- 
sium sulphate, in plat No. 3, 2 pounds of potassium chloride, and in 
plat No. 4, 1 pound 9 ounces of sodium chloride. The fertilizer was 
broadcast over an area inclosed by a circle of approximately 18 feet 
in diameter with the palm in the center and lightly hoed in. The 
palms in plat No. 5 received no fertilizer. 
NUT PRODUCTION 
Two palms died during the course of the experiment, and their 
production is not included in the record. The experiment was ter- 
minated by the hurricane of September, 1928, which left standing 
only 32 of 98 palms. 
The nuts were collected thirty times during the course of the ex- 
periment. On two occasions a laborer removed some nuts prior to 
recording production, thus necessitating the elimination of these two 
harvests from the comparative record. The nuts mature throughout 
the year, and a division of production into calendar years gives an 
accurate idea of the distribution of production only when the col- 
