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involved. It may, therefore, he of advantage if the arguments which 
prompted the demand for caution, and asked that a number of 
preliminary records might be obtained prior to the formulation of 
any actual scheme — avowedly theoretical though many of them 
then were — are given, 
Reference has already been made to the mixed natures of the 
palms in any field of an estate, and the manner in which their 
individual capabilities would affect yield has been indicated. 
We have to add to this, however, the variation which will be 
caused, the extent has as yet not been investigated, by the varying 
periodic productions of the palms before they reach their periods 
of stationary production. 
Thus a quantity of palms will commence fructifying at a 
particular period; these will show a definite incremental curve to 
the attainment of a more or less stationary maximum production 
which will be attained in a more or less definite time ; but for 
each of the different sets which fructify at different subsequent 
periods there will be an incremental curve possibly different from 
the others, as there will be different periods up to their “ stationary 
productive stages.” Add to these the variations which may be 
attributed to chance pollination and it will be seen that the following 
variables have to be considered ; 
(1) Variety of palm, 
(2) Individual palm, 
(3) Time of initial flowering, 
(4) Time of attainment of stationary yield, 
(5) Lengths of periods between (3) and (4), 
(6) Pollination, 
(7) Culture, 
and, in a crop such as this where the ultimate gain comes dowu 
to “ oil content,” 
(8) Copra and oil content at various stages in growth, i.e., 
physiological considerations. 
Though as far as can be ascertained no work of analytical nature 
has been done on the “ populations ” of palms in estates, and the 
effect of many of these variables may ultimately prove to be of small 
dimensions, it seems a moral certainty that the method of division of 
a stand of young palms into blocks, giving different treatments to 
some of the blocks and using others as “ controls,” even if a large 
number of the latter are taken, will for the detections of small 
differences due to culture be of very little, if any, utility. It appears 
perfectly useless to speculate on blocks of palms averaging up ; it 
seems a matter of pure chance to count on any sympathy being 
/S2> 
