I have omitted to notice, in the foregoing observations, a very mistaken notion which prevails in many quarters, that it is best to let the trees drop their fruit, and not to pick the nuts when ripe.  Nature directs differently.  As soon as the husk of the nut is more brown than green it should be picked.  It then makes better oil and better coir, than when left to shrivel up and fall from the tree.

Colonel Low, in his “Dissertation on Pinang,” gives some interesting details and statistics on coco-nut planting:—­

On a rough estimate—­for an actual enumeration has not been lately taken—­the total number of bearing trees in Pinang may be stated at 50,000, and those in Province Wellesley at 20,000; but very large accessions to these numbers have of late years been made.  The tree is partial to a sandy soil in the vicinity of the sea, and Province Wellesley offers, therefore, greater facilities, perhaps, for its cultivation than Pinang does, as its line of clear beach is longer, and has many narrow slips of light or sandy land lying betwixt the alluvial flats inland.  There are several kinds of this tree known here; one has a yellowish color, observable both on the branches and unripe fruit; its branches do not droop much.  A second has green spreading branches, more drooping than the former, the fruit being green colored until ripe; this is, perhaps, the most prolific; it also bears the soonest, if we except the dwarf coco-nut, which fruits at the second or third year, before the stem has got above one foot high.  This last kind was brought from Malacca; it attains in time to the height of the common sort.  Its fruit is small and round, and of course less valuable than the other sorts.  There is also a coco-nut so saturated with green, that the oil expressed from its kernel partakes of that color.

It is a mistaken supposition that the coco-nut tree will flourish without care being taken of it.  The idea has been induced by the luxuriant state of trees in close proximity to houses and villages, and in small cove’s where its roots are washed by the sea.  In such circumstances, a tree, from being kept clear about the roots, from being shaded, and from occasional stimuli, advances rapidly to perfection; but in an extended plantation, a regular and not inexpensive system of culture must be followed to ensure success.

The nuts being selected, when perfectly ripe, from middle-aged trees of the best sorts, are to be laid on the ground under shades, and after the roots and middle shoots, with two branches, have appeared, the sooner they are planted the better.  Out of 100 nuts, only two-thirds, on an average, will be found to vegetate.  The plants are then to be set out at intervals of thirty or forty feet—­the latter if ground can be spared—­and the depth will be regulated by the nature of the soil, and the nut must not be covered with earth.  The plants require, in exposed situations, to