Renovation of Old Groves.
Material improvement of old plantations may sometimes be effected and, unless the trees are known to be upward of fifty years old, generally repays the labor. Marked increase in crop has followed a heavy thinning out of trees upon the Government cocoanut farm at San Ramon, Mindanao. The improvement that a freer circulation of air and abundant sunlight have effected is very marked. Where it can be done, plowing is also sometimes feasible and should be followed by immediate crop improvement. The average native plow is not so well adapted for working over an old or neglected grove as it is for original soil preparation. It acts more as a subsoiler and will tear and lacerate more roots than is desirable. A single carabao, or one-horse American garden plow, is the better implement for this work. Extensive bat guano deposits are found in Mindoro, Guimarás, and Luzon. Some of them show richness in nitrogen and, when accessible at a moderate cost, would be useful in the renovation of old groves, where the shade would be adverse to the rearing of good crops of nitrogen gatherers.
Conclusion.
1. There are large areas throughout the littoral valleys of the Archipelago, as yet unexploited, which, in the essentials of soil, climate, irrigation facilities, and general environment are suitable for cocoanut growing.
2. The present conditions present especially flattering attractions to cocoanut growers capable of undertaking the cultivation upon a scale of some magnitude. By coöperation, small estates could combine in the common ownership of machinery, whereby the products of the grove could be converted into more profitable substances than copra.
3. The present production of copra (estimated at 278,000 piculs in 1902) is an assurance of a sufficient supply to warrant the erection of a high-class modern plant for the manufacture of the ultimate (the “butter”) products of the nut. The products of such an enterprise would be increased by the certainty of a local market in the Philippines for some part of the output. The average market value of the best grades of copra in the Marseilles market is $54.40, gold, per English ton. The jobbing value on January 1 of this year, of the refined products, were, for each ton of copra:
| Butter fats | $90.00 |
| Residual soap oils | 21.00 |
| Press cake | 5.20 |
| Total | 116.20 |
the difference representing the profit per ton, less the cost of manufacture.
4. The minimum size of a plantation, on which economical application of oil and fiber preparing machinery could be made, is 60 hectares.