July i, 1891,] 
TME TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
13 
A MONOGRAPH OF THE COCONUT PALM 
(COCOS NUCIFERA). 
ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN BHORTT, U.D., F.L.S., (fec. 
Dr. Shorties monograph of the ooooDut palm is like 
himself eh<'rt, and folerably ii.nocoot. A review 
of it, therefore, should be short, and iunocout like it- 
self. We will acoopt the suthi*r’9 staiTmt^ut of fee's 
as oorrooij and merely point ont wh* re local ezperi- 
eooes, opini’^na* and praetioe differ from li reports. 
Our aatbor tells us, that the o loouat tree grow 
to the neual height ami fruits freoly at a heiKbt of 
8,000 feet in ludia. lu Coyion we have no thriving 
oucount-s at an elevation of 8,000 fe t, and the limit 
of prohtable coltivatiuu is 1,000 feet lower. Mere 
elevation 18 not, however, our rule in choosing our 
locality; temperature and rainfall are our measures of 
Buitahle climate. Ther** is no tempe/ature in Ceylou 
to) high, and our lowest limit is an annual average 
temperature of 75^ ; our lowest limit of rainfall 
tor Huccoasfnl cuittvatioD u 70 iuobes more or le^s 
falliug every month of the vear, and our highest 
limit is 100 inches, for though the coconut rejoices in 
ttioisture, it detests iiaturatiun. 
Alluvial Hats are our riohest soils undoatedly, but 
the true coconut soil is 70 per ceut of fine sand, 30 
percent light loam and orgauio matter; but the oabook 
Boila oi our undulating uplands are not to be des- 
pised, especially, as we have comparatively little 
other kinds to draw on. We have still people who 
plant clay* and swampsi to their own ultimate loss. 
dO trees is the numb r our author allots to an aorn; 
but whether he or the priuter*s duvil is responsible 
for the t-rror, the book says that 80 trees in an acre 
will stand 60 feet apart. At 60 feet tpari, au acre 
will oontaiu 12 15 trues tn the acre, aud 80 trees per 
aoto will stand 28J feet apart on the rquare. The 
most common distance in Ceylon estates is 25 feet 
on the square, or 70 trees p r acre. This we find, a 
sound practical disiaiicc apart, for moat of our soi s. 
Wo ko«*w one large entato planted at 80 by 30, but 
It is a speoUIity in soil and lay oi land. It is a rather 
loose way of trea ing this subject, to say, “lu a 
Well ordered plantation, the trees should be from 30 
40 feet aptrt.*’ 23^ by 23J feet gives 80 trees per 
J^rp, Slid ‘*M good soils t' is is too close, 26 bv 25 
t et gives 70 8C b^ 30 feet gives 48*4 and 40 by 
40 leet giv s 27’47. Thus very noariy tiiree tituen as 
many plants gu into au acre 23^ by 23^ uu at 40 by 
fO. There is no part of the coconut r»giou of Ceylon 
io which the planter beuefiiB himself by putting more 
than 70 or le-^a ibau 60 plants iu an acre. 
The author’s direotioQ'4 for selecting seed nuts are, 
to gather from tree^ 15 to 20 years old fully ripe; 
gaih. rod bt^tween February aud May, the largest pro- 
ourabU well formed, the husks dried before plucking 
to be lowered from the tree in a basket aud to be 
kept for six weeks, bet ore being laid out in the nursery. 
This iH a subjoot that hai hitherto mut with liitle 
attention in Ceylon. The all but universal practice 
has been, to select Aeed from a heap gathered in the 
UBnal course, it is however a very importao- matter, 
anu one that deserves the moat carelnl study. It is 
Kom cafeleB^^.^aa here that we see au‘*h inequality iu 
our u ;lds, intqualiiioa not duo to difFi*reiico of soil, 
or treatuieut, but cnirtiy to ifit. Tijiw auihor tells 
there are thirty named 
netieH. In Ceylou there sre a vast number of 
nameless varieties, v„ry d.meult to describe, but very 
■‘'‘“"’K ‘•'em 
f y* Uae tree beg;ins to dowor in its fifth year, on 
I<^ur (eot of Hiem ; iu .earest nei«hi our eqaally 
. rnriB up '<> fifteen or even twenty feet, and 
on y begins to fiower m tho ninth or tenth year; Ooe 
wm Wo ferttl* Ketins on ,ts first flowor; aud its 
ne K .hour w... ^ro..nce only barren flowers tor twelve 
n"® ”■ *’ y**' of opening its first 
nwer, tall Mo a regnlar „f iq,, p‘m, 
we va-i'l^Mr. Ch.sserisa's great 
oocn.!*®. ^*“■“''*■*'' 0 '', >0 Singapore, he was cutting down 
mom ‘ '*'■ yotrs old gave no 
promise of fruit, it atrnok us at tiio time th»t tho 
oauBo Was the clayey nature of the soil.— Ed 2 A 
10 
of modinm size; while another close by carries from 30 
to 40, very large oni's, aud the next in tlie same line, 
carries above 200 very small ones. Then in the .iso, 
colour, aud form, of the truil, the e are hardly two trees 
BO aiike, as not to be diatiiiguished from each other, 
tjome of tho directions given are good, same useless, 
and some bad. The first conditon, is that the nut 
selected for seed should bo sound snd ripe, it should be 
taaeu Irom a strong, early, and heavy bearing tree, with- 
out rep renoe to its age, it shonld be of medium size, of 
oval shape, with thin bus«, and the green colour is 
generally beat. The shorter the leaf stalk tho better 
and there is noobjeoiion to lower it in a basket, but it 
should not be left to dry on the tree, and may be plan- 
ted OB suou as gathered. The best soil for a nursery bed 
IS light loamy Band. It is not necessary to plane the 
nuts BO wide ap irt as one foot, or to make raised beds, 
but the beds should bo shaded and watered oooa- 
Buiually in dry weather for six months. After the 
plant has opened its first two leaves all shade is 
injurious. 
ff iu south-west Ceylon the conditions were such 
as to require that the pi mts should be shaded and 
watered alter being planted out in the flnids, wo 
would never have had the 20,000.000 of trees we are 
credited with.* Shading we donut find, cither necessary 
or useful ; and to water our undulating uplands is 
simply imprait cable. If the plaotiug is done in the 
little monsoon (mm eighty to ninety per cent survive 
the fir-t succeeding dry scasun. Holes can hardly be 
maile too deep or too wide, but to bring one ^to two 
cubic feet of sand to put into each, is utterly imprac- 
ticable, at a paying cost. Neither sslt nor ashes are 
bars to white ants, and to throw a quantity of vegetable 
rubbish into the holes by way of keeping in tho 
moisture is to create tho uuo'eua of an ant-hill round 
the plant. The best prsciiosi plan here is to dig a hole 
say three feet cube, fill it in to tho depth of 18 inches 
with surface soil, place the plaut so that the 
crown of the root, shall be one foot below tho 
surface; then at intscvals of three or font months 
fill in two or throe inches, by breaking down the sides 
o' the holes. 
There is no doubt 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 into flower in 
five yosrs, but this is a ooitly style of cultivation, better 
suited to the villsge owner of an acre or two, who 
performs all the opera. ions by the labour of his own 
lamily, than to a large concern, where every storke 
of work, has to bo paid for in hard oasb, and tho cost 
of watering is prohibitive. Among all our largo coco- 
nut proprietors, there is only one, who oombiued the 
ouminaud of a perennial river, aud sufficient capital, 
with pluck and iutclligenco enough, to carry out au 
irrigation work, that supplies unfailing moisture to 700 
acres of land. But atter sll, water is only one requi- 
site of high cultivation, and will only yield its best 
results, m combination with the other necessary works 
and appliance. 
On light deep soil, with proper cultivation, an 
average of iOO nuts pet tree is by no meant an ont- 
side estimate. There are alluvial flats that y.sld 
twice that amount, and large extents of level loamy 
sands, that seldom average less ; and even 
on less favoured spots, high cultivation will 
bring the average, well o i towards that num- 
ber. If we cauunt estimate the yield of all tho 
mature trees in Ceylon at a higher average than 
20 nuts per annuin the resnlt is tine to thowiut cl 
cnitiva'iou. t There are means open to icientiflo in. 
dustry, by which nny trff that bears 20 nuts may he 
made to boar 100. Tli.-so means are stated hy our author 
thus —“A W' II kept |ilantati"n should be maun red once 
a Tear * * ' The soil should be freoly ploughed 
up, and kept loose and broken.” To these two hereto 
• O ir ii.chn'ton is to believe in a number nor' 
neaarly aproachiug 30 to 40 millions of trees in all 
Fd. T A- 
t And over-crowdi g in native gardens.— Ed. T. A. 
