The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-10-08
The Cultivation of Cocoanuts.

The cocoanut is well-known fruit of
species of palm, supposed to be a native
of the Indian coasts OF the South Sea Is
lands, but now diffusing over all tropical
regions. There are some eighteen species
but the cocoanut palm is the most inn
portant. The rest are navies of South
America, and grow it dry and somwhat
elevated distaictsr The cocoanut palm,
on the contrary, is seldom found at any
considerable distance from the sea coast
except where it has been introduced by
man, and generally succeeds bert in
sandy beaches having a subsoil, or ON
hills or mountains exposed to the sea
breeze. 1t has cylindrical stem about
two feet in diameter, and from 80 feet to
100 feet high, with many rings marking
the places of former leaves, and bearing
at its sumit a crown of from Is to 20 feet
in length. The flowers proceed from
within large pointed spathe; the fruit
grows in short racemes, bear in favorable
situations from ten to fifteen nuts: and
ten or twelve of these racemes, in diff
ferent stages may be seen at once on a
tree, about so to POO nuts being it's
ordinary annual produce.
The tree bears fruit in from five to eight
years-according to climate, soil and
situation-from the time of planting
and continues producing for seventy or
eighty years. Of the three round black
scars at the end of the shell, the one
which alone can be easily pierced with
pin, and though which an opening is
commonly made to get out the milk, is
the destined outlet for the terminating
embryo, which is situated there, the
kernel consisting generally of the albu-
men intended for its nourishment. The
thick husk is remarkably adapted to the
preservation of the seed, while the nut
is tossed about by the waves until it
reaches some shore far distant from that
on which it grew.
In starting cocoanut plantation it is
customary to bury the seed nuts in straw
until they terminate, and the roots and
young shoots spring forth, and then
transplant them into the field. The on
ly assignable reason for this peculiar
system appears to be avoid planting I'M
productive seed, as it is well known that
every nut will not terminate. So by al
lowing them first to shoot in the straw a
field of true plants may be relied upon
The system, however, is not good, as by
it the young roots are often exposed to
the air for length of time, and some of
them get broken i'll transplanting, which
gives an unhealthiness to the plant, and
causes a poor growth and late bearing;
and, again, the plants seldom get planted
deep enough to withstand the hurricanes
common to tropical climates. The best
method to be adopted in planting is first
to thoroughly clear the field and fence it,
in order to protect the young plants from
damage by cattle, and then dig holes
about twenty-four inches deep and fifteen
feet apart, in every direction, select big
round nuts and place them in the holes,
just covering them with loose soil taken
from the surface, this being ripper than
that taken from the bottom of the holes,
and then throw little straw or leaves
over the covered nut. If the seed be
properly chosen there will he very few
misses, if any, and these can readily be
rectitied by replanting In the following
year more surface soil must be thrown
into the holes, and so gradually as the
plant grows must the holes be filled up
until the level of the ground is reached,
when the operation or planting is COM
pleted.
One difficulty to contend against when
the tree is grown is where flying foxes
are abundant, these pests destroying the
young nuts, though they cannot eat them.
Another trouble is experienced from a
large beetle called the cocoanut beetle.
the Larvae of which are very destructive,
< eating their way in all directions into the
| stems OF the younger trees. This latter
IA pest may be, however, easily overcome
y by simply burning damp grass here and
d there among the trees, the smoke OF
~ rs.als-s .e.ssasts.sis1.a.