Part 7

The first green crop selected will be one known to be of tropical origin which, with fair soil conditions, will not fail to give a good yield. He may with safety try any of the native rank-growing beans, or cowpeas, soja, or velvet beans; or, if these are not procurable, he has at command everywhere an unstinted seed supply of Cajanus indicus, or of Clitorea ternatea, which will as well effect the desired end--to wit, a great volume of humus and a new soil supply of nitrogen. It remains for the planter to determine if the crop thus grown is to be plowed under, or if he will use it to still better advantage by partially feeding it, subject, as previously stated, to an honest return to the land of all the manure resulting therefrom.

He may utilize it in any way, even to selling the resulting seed crop, provided all the remaining brush is turned back to the land and a portion of the money he receives for the seed be reinvested in high-grade potash and phosphatic manures. The plantation should now be in fair condition for a corn crop, and, as a very slight shading is not prejudicial to the young palms, the corn can be planted close enough to the trees, leaving only sufficient space to admit of the free cultivation that both require.

It must not be forgotten that corn makes the most serious inroads upon our soil fertility of any of the crops in our rotation, and, unless by this time the planter is prepared to feed all the grain produced to fatten swine or cattle, it had better be eliminated from the rotation and peanuts substituted. In addition to this, he must still make good whatever drains the corn will have made upon this element of soil fertility.

Cropping to corn attacks the cocoanut at a new and vulnerable point, against which the careful grower must make provision. It will be remembered that an average corn crop makes very considerable drafts upon the soil supply of phosphoric acid; but, if the grain is used for fattening swine, whose manure is much richer in phosphates than most farm manures, and the latter is restored to the land, serious soil impoverishment may be averted.

The next step in our suggested rotation is the cotton crop. Here, too, limitations are imposed upon the planter who is without abundant manurial resources to maintain the future integrity of his grove. He may sell the lint from his cotton, but he can not dispose of it (as is frequently done here) in the seed.

If the enterprise be not upon a scale that will justify the equipment of a mill and the manufacture of the oil, he has no alternative but to return the seed in lieu of the seed cake, wasteful and extravagant though such a process be.

The oil so returned is without manurial value and, if left in the seed, is so much money wasted. The rational process, of course, calls for the return of the press cake, either direct or in the form of manure after it has been fed. With this is also secured the hull, rich in both the potash and the phosphoric acid which we now know is so essential to the future welfare of the grove.

The above rotation is simply suggested as a tentative expedient.

The ground will now be so shaded that we can not hope to raise more catch crops for harvesting, although it may be possible during the dry season to raise a partial stand of pulses, of manure value only; but, from the fruiting stage on, this becomes a minor consideration.

This stage of the cultural story brings us once more face to face with the principle contended for at the beginning of this paper, namely, that there can be no permanent prosperity in this branch of horticulture until the crop is so worked up into its ultimate products that none of the residue of manufacture goes to waste.

At best the return of these side products is insufficient, and, despite their careful husbandry, we can not ultimately evade a greater or less resort to inorganic manures of high cost and difficult procurement.

The residue from the press cake is rich in nitrogen and humus, which, in the ever-increasing shade of the grove, will become more and more difficult to produce there through nitrogen-making agencies; but the waste from the manufacture of coir and the ashes from the woody shell will go far toward supplying the needed potash.

Such a system would, if closely followed, practically restrict the farmer's ultimate purchases to a small quantity of acid phosphates, or of bone dust, which, in conjunction with good tillage, should serve to maintain the grove in a highly productive condition for an indefinite term of years.

IRRIGATION.

As an auxiliary manurial agent of definite, well-proven value in this Archipelago, I will briefly recite some of the benefits that may be expected to follow occasional irrigation during the dry season.

It strongly accelerates growth and early maturity. A few irrigated trees, reputed to be under five years from seed and already bearing fruit, were shown the writer on the Island of Joló. The growth was remarkably strong and vigorous, notwithstanding that the water of irrigation had been applied in such a way that the tree could only hope to derive a minimum of benefit from its application. It had merely been turned on from a convenient ditch whenever the soil seemed baked and dry, at intervals of one to three weeks, as circumstances seemed to require.

Irrigation, but always in connection with subsequent cultivation, may be considered equal to a crop guaranty that is not afforded so effectually by any purely cultural system.

Rarely has a better opportunity occurred to demonstrate the unquestioned benefits that have inured to these few Joló trees from the use of irrigating waters than the present season of 1902-3. From many sources reports come to this Bureau of trees failing, or dying outright, from lack of moisture. While it is true that the present dry season has had no parallel since 1885-86, and that the rainfall during the dry season has been less than half the normal, yet it should not be forgotten that, during the eight months from October to May, inclusive, the average precipitation on the west coast, at the latitude of Manila, is only about 460 mm. and that, when the amount falls below this, the cocoanut is bound to suffer.

Though it is true that the evil effects of drought may be modified, if not altogether controlled, by cultivation, the assistance of irrigation places the cultivator in an impregnable position. If evidence in support of this statement were called for, it might be found to-day in the deplorable condition of those groves that have been permitted to run to pasture, as compared with those in which some attempts have been made to bolo out the encroaching weeds and grasses.

It is probably true that, except on very sandy soils, continued surface irrigation would aggravate the superficial root-developing tendency of the tree; and to what extent, if any, occasional laceration by deep shovel tooth cultivation would injure the tree remains to be seen. There are, however, few economic plants that so quickly repair root damage as the Palmæ, and, unless the seat of injury extends over a very large area, it is probable that the resulting injury would be of no consequence, as compared with the general benefits that would result from irrigation.

HARVEST.

Harvest of the crop requires but a brief discussion. The nuts should be plucked when ripe. The phenomenon of maturity can not be readily described in print. It frequently is as evident in nuts of a bright green color as in those of a golden-yellow color, and the recognition is one of those things that can only be learned by experience.

The practice, so general in the Seychelles, of allowing the nut to hang till it falls to the ground is certainly undesirable in these Islands. On the contrary, the overripe nuts will seldom fall until dislodged by a storm, and it is no uncommon thing to see nuts that have sprouted and started to grow upon trees in plantations where the harvest is left to the action of natural causes. Such nuts, of course, are entirely worthless for the manufacture of oil or copra, and even the husk has depreciated in value, the finest coirs, in fact, being derived only from the fruits that have not attained full ripeness. In any case, the nuts should be picked and the crop worked up before any considerable enlargement or swelling of the embryo occurs. From this time onward physiological changes arise which injuriously affect the quantity and quality of what is called the meat.

The heaping up of the nuts for some time after harvest favors some milk absorption, which seems to facilitate the subsequent easy extraction of the endosperm.

ENEMIES.

Outside of certain insects of the order Coleoptera, cocoanuts in the Philippines are reasonably free from enemies; in some districts, close to forest-clad areas, the raids of monkeys do some damage. A tree-nesting rat, which nibbles the young nuts, is also a source of considerable loss. The rat is best overcome by frequent disturbance of his quarters. This involves the removal of the dead leaves and thatch that form constantly about the base of the crown. But the wisdom of this recommendation will depend entirely upon circumstances. As the planter may find that rats or the rhinoceros beetle are the lesser evil, so should he be governed.

There are localities in the Archipelago where the plague of rats is unknown and where the beetles abound. In that case it would be unwise to disturb the leaves which are very tardily deciduous and do not naturally fall till the wood beneath is hard, mature, and practically impervious to the attacks of insects.

Where rats are numerous and insects few, which is the case in some localities, the dead and dying leaves, among which the rat nests, may be advantageously cleared away whenever the tree is climbed to harvest the fruit.