Planter’s Questions

Answers for the Planter’s Questions

HOW long has the coconut been in the Pacific Islands?

Why do some people spell cocoa COCOA, while others insist on

Cacao?

How long will a coconut palm keep or, bearing?

How many separate pests and diseases attack the coconut palm?

IF you are intrigued by these questions, as we were, you should get a copy of Mr. Albert Richards’s revised edition of Practical Planting, which he has just pub lished in New Guinea at 25 - per copy.

It apparently was planned as a manual for the New Guinea coconut planter, but its well-known and ex perienced author has wandered over a wide field. He is a practical New Guinea man who has taken an in terest in many subjects—we re member his handy Pidgin English Dictionary.

The book tells one how and where and when to plant coconuts and cocoa and—what is more important —how to make the plantation pay.

He has a good deal to say about other tropical crops. He presents a wide range of statistics—but some are out of date—there are now

16,000 Europeans in Papua and New Guinea, not 8,020.

He has much to say about soils.

A coconut planted in unsuitable soil may not last two decades. But, he claims, there is proof that a healthy coconut in the right soil can still be bearing merrily—and profitably —after 100 years.

WE take issue with Mr. Richards on his “it is questionable if

coconuts did pre-date the •ival of the native people.” rhree thousand years—probably s—is the maximum life of native tlement in the Islands. The re liable ability of the coconut to ft for months in the sea, and :n take root and flourish on a )b of coral, practically awash, was ; evolved in three thousand years, ere would have been no native tlement in the Islands if the life tng coconut had not been firmly iblished there, long before. ’he distinction between “cocoa”

I “cacao,” we learn, is merely antic. Cacao is the correct mtific name. Cocoa is the corrupt n evolved by traders when they an to handle cacao’s product 350 rs ago. We fear that however :h the purists may writhe and ?gle, the term in future for both it and product will be cocoa. [r. Richards’s book fills a need I felt in the South Pacific. Well ited and well bound, it also is ience of the high technical Ity of the Vunapope Mission itery at Kokopo, TNG.—R. be marriage will take place in ney, on January 21, of Mr. •cy Pavlich, of Port Moresby, to 5 Margaret McCosker, of Bellevue