conceded as the best.

In temperate regions, the exigencies of climate exact that this be
done with discretion and care, in order that the unduly stimulated
growths may be fully ripened and matured against the approach of an
inclement season. In the Tropics no such limitations exist, and the
early growth of the tree may be profitably stimulated to the highest
pitch. That this general treatment, as applied to young fruit trees,
is specifically the one indicated in the early life of the cocoanut,
may be quickly learned by him who will observe the avidity with
which the fleshy roots of a young cocoanut will invade, embrace,
and disintegrate a piece of stable manure.

Notwithstanding lack of chemical analysis, we may not question the
fact that considerable supplies of both potash and phosphoric acid
are withdrawn in the building up of leaf and stem; but these are
found in sufficient quantity in soils of average quality to meet
the early requirements of the plant. It is only when the fruiting
age is reached that demands are made, especially upon the potash,
which the planter is called upon to make good.

Good cultivation, the application of a generous supply of stimulating
nitrogen during its early career, and the gradual substitution in
later life of manures in which potash and phosphoric acid, particularly
the former, predominate, are necessary.

How, then, may we best apply the nitrogen requirements of its early
life? Undoubtedly through the application of abundant supplies of
stable manures, press cakes, tankage, or of such fertilizers as furnish
nitrogen in combination with the large volume of humus necessary to
minister to the gross appetite of the plant under consideration. But
the chances are that none of these are available, and the planter
must have recourse to some of the green, nitrogen-gathering manures
that are always at his command.

He must sow and plow under crops of pease, beans, or other legumes
that will furnish both humus and nitrogen in excess of what they
remove. Incidentally, they will draw heavily upon the potash deposits
of the soil, and they must all be turned back, or, if fed, every
kilo of the resulting manure must be scrupulously returned. He must
pay for the cultivation of the land, for the growing of crops that
he turns back as manure (and that involves further expense for their
growing and plowing under), and, in addition, he must be subject to
such outlay for about seven years before