395 
tages of sucli methods in preparing their product for the 
market. 
Another factor which in some cases reduces the profits 
which should he obtained by the coconut grower is the 
practice of taking the nuts from the tree before they fall. 
It is not easy to see the advantage of this method, and it has 
always seemed to me curious that the Malay, with whom 
dislike to unnecessary work is no less a trait than in other 
races, should so frequently adopt it. If a nut is plucked 
unripe the amount of copra it contains is less than if it is 
left on the tree; and we have no data to show that any 
decrease in that* amount of copra or the oil it contains takes 
place if the nut is kept a little time after it is ripe. When 
the nut is fully ripe it falls from the tree and can be collect- 
ed from the ground with considerably less trouble than if 
it lias to be picked from the top of the tree, and with the 
additional advantage that it contains its maximum amount 
of copra. 
Further observation seems to point to the fact that the 
thorough drying of copra is more easily effected in the case 
of ripe nuts which have fallen from the tree than with those 
picked, many of which are not fully ripe. 
The arguments I have heard adduced in favour of the 
practice of climbing the trees and plucking the nuts are that 
the copra is darkened in colour, that the other nuts still un- 
ripe on the bunch are improved by the excision of the ripe 
ones before they fall, and* that the prevention of theft is 
more difficult. None of these reasons seem to me to weigh 
seriouslv against the probable increase in the crop of copra 
and the saving in labour which gathering the nuts from the 
ground ensures.. ♦, 
The coconut planter, like other tropical cultivators, is 
conservative in his methods, but such an easy method of 
improving his cultivation should at least be the subject of 
careful experiment before its adoption is refused. 
Coconut cultivation, while not offering the possibilities 
of profit which the growing of rubber shows, is an extieme- 
ly safe and profitable industry, and many areas of acces- 
sible land, especially on the Coast, are much better suited 
to the coconut palm than the para rubber tree. 
The acreage under coconuts in the Native States at the 
end of 1908 was 118,697, an increase of over 6,000, or five 
per cent., since the same date in 1907, when there were 
112,550 acres. 
The value of the coconut land planted m the Federated 
Malay States cannot be less than some $23,000,000. 
