manner
practised by the natives on the Coromandel coast, by help of a hoop
passing round the tree and the body of the climber--and a ligature
so connecting the feet as will enable him to clasp the tree with
them--the Malays cut deep notches or steps in the trunk, in a
zig-zag manner, sufficient to support the toes or the side of the
foot, and thus ascend with the extra, aid only of their arms. This
mode is also a dangerous one, as a false step, when near the top of
a high tree, generally precipitates the climber to the ground. This
notching cannot prove otherwise than injurious to the tree. But the
besetting sin of the planter of coco-nuts, and other productive
trees, is that of crowding. Coco-nut trees, whose roots occupy, when
full grown, circles of forty to fifty feet in diameter, may often be
found planted within eight or ten feet of each other; and in the
native campongs all sorts of indigenous fruit trees are jumbled
together, with so little space to spread in, that they mostly assume
the aspect of forest trees, and yield but sparing crops.

The common kinds of the coco-nut, under very favorable
circumstances, begin to bear at six years of age; but little produce
can be expected until the middle or end of the seventh year. The
yearly produce, one tree with another, may be averaged at 80 nuts
the tree; where the plantation is a flourishing one--assuming the
number of trees, in one hundred orlongs, to be 5,000--the annual
produce will be 400,000 nuts, the minimum local market value of
which will be 4,000 Spanish dollars, and the maximum 8,000 dollars.
From either of these sums 6 per cent. must be deducted for the cost
of collecting, and carriage, &c. The quantity of oil which can be
manufactured from the above number of nuts will be, as nearly as
possible, 834 piculs of 133-1/3 lbs.

The average price of this quantity, at 7 dollars per picul 5,838
Deduct cost of manufacturing, averaged at one-fourth, and
collecting, watching, &c 2,059
-----
Profit, Spanish dollars 3,779

The Chinese, who are the principal manufacturers of the oil, readily
give a picul of it in exchange for 710 ripe nuts, being about 563
piculs of oil out of the total