July i, i8gi.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
67 
6ih. That the ouUivated plants will develops 
mote in (he Bubeequent twelve months, than in 
any previous twenty-four. 
Number one has been aeoepted as tbeoretioslly 
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 begon 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 tor two 
previous years, two years after the digging had 
heads up to sixteen leaves, the lost folly developed 
eighteen feet, and beginning to show stem. Cases 
where simple digging baa been oomplioated with 
the application of manure will not count in this 
argument though they prove that manuring and 
digging combined yield results almost marvellous. 
On young trees that wore just getting their stems 
clear of the ground, an expenditure of 27 cents 
was incurred, many of them flowered within a 
year, moat of them within a year and half of the 
application ; they are carrying crops seldom seen 
except on old trees standiog on the choicest spots 
of soil. 
It is a fair ioferenco from 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 diggings were supplemented 
with two cents worth of nitrogenous manure. 
About thirty-six cubic inches of cattle-shed manure 
has been found very useful in bringing forward 
supplies. There are five oonditions that either 
singly or in various combinations prevent coconuts 
from bearing before the end of the seventh year : — 
The let of tbeso retarding oonditions is a iecb!e 
slow-growing plant. The remedy is to take it out, 
and replace it with a healthy one. 
2nd. A BtiS 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 lor the development of the 
plant. This may be remedied by the applioation of 
suitable manure, but a better plan is to avoid 
planting such land. 
4th. A periodical defioienoy of moisture. For 
this there is no generally applicable remedy, but 
a pulverized soil resists drought better than an 
unbr. ktn one, and so 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 bearing no eoonomic 
value to balance the ill it does. 
If ^ the land bo^ opened on the goyiya system 
it will be a diroot saving of expense to the 
land owner, of neatly K30 pot acre, and 
his sheru of the orops may be worth 
from BIO to B20 The goyiya system being a 
merely urpleting one it very doubtful whether 
Its adopuun is any gain in the end. The goyiya’s 
‘afaou r is paid for out of the fertility of the land, 
* For two crayons j a free open soil is not only 
saturated by rain, when it falls, ami permeable by 
dew, but is fitted by capillary attraction to draw on 
the reserve stores of moisture iu ihe subsoil, when 
the surf ace fails to bo visited by rain or dew-— Ed. T, A, 
and it stems probable, that the retention of the 
elements so removed would benefit the per- 
maneot crop more, than the immediate gain would 
oompensale, especially as the goyiya leaves mnob 
work to ba done, that could be more benefioiallji 
performed at an earlier period, and at less Cost, 
than it requires ultimately. 
Ooconut onltivati''n would be a mnoh more 
doeirable investment could it bo combined with 
some other ouliivation, that would pay indepen- 
dently. for the early breaking up of the soil and 
for moh manure as it needed on its own aocoont. 
It seems, however, hopeless, to diMoover even one 
product that will meet those conditions. Every, 
thing produced by native labonr, for native eon- 
sumption, is out of court, to one who pays tot 
labonr at the currant rale of wages. There 
then remain only Ihe markets of the world- 
for Buoh products as they absorb. The pros- 
pect here is not enoonraging ! the essential oils 
are clearly overdone ; tobacco is objeotiouable 
for i'B exhausting powers, end few ooconut 
lands wil grow it at all. Casiava and arrow- 
root aro 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 would bo madness to set up. Ouriously 
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 looal 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 priocs to a non-paying 
point in the looal market, even were well-to-do 
colonists not so preposierous as to prefer paying 
five or six hundred per cent more for stuff that 
has been through the poUutiug hands of an English 
tradesman, than tor a pure locally produced article. 
Ginger selling from Od to 8d per pound is enooura- 
ging, but it requires a speoiul soil, and costly 
oulture, and is a precarious crop ; it will not, 
therefore, meet the conditions of the oooonut 
planter. It is just possible that chillies might be 
grown, and placed in the London market, for the 
price they command there, 20 b to 25 b per owt., 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 ba 
ouUivated on young oooonut estates, with great ad- 
vantage to the ooconuts 1 hut its merits are little 
known to the lo'ial public, and it is the local publie 
on whiob the grower must ohiefly depend. The 
oush-oush yam riquiros a tolerably good soil, 
pulverized to the depth of a foot, heavy manuring, 
and a forest of long poles to run on. The onitivation 
is therefore a most costly one, and has hitherto 
only been tried on experimental patches ; but if it 
were found to soil readily at a paying price it 
would no doubt be gone into largely. Those who 
are acquainted with it admit it to be not inferior to 
the heal potatoes, and soma people even prefer it to 
that universally approved tuber. This plant was 
only introduced to lha Western Province a few years 
ago, and the only fact fully asoertained is its refusal 
to respond to anything short of a high and costly 
cul tivation * 
’ Where diil it ouiuo Irom *iid what ii the origin 
(if the queer narno “ oneh-cush ’? Is it just the 
West Indian yam ? or a looal variety f The Jaffna 
purple yam is a magnificent root, very tasty, especially 
when butter is added, and wo should say it must be 
very nutritious.— Ed, T, A, 
