[1] Quoted in “Watts’s Dict.,” II, 456.
[2] Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 1902.
Cultivation.
Selection of Location.
In the selection of a site for a cocoanut grove it is best to select land near the seashore and not extending inland more than 2 or 3 miles. Within this narrow zone there is commonly a deposit of rich, permeable, well-drained alluvium offering soil conditions of far greater importance to successful tree growth than the mere exposure to marine influences. The success that has followed cocoanut growing in Cochin China, remote from the seaboard, in Annam and up the Ganges basin one hundred or more miles from the coast, and in our own interior Province of Laguna, definitely proves that immediate contiguity to the sea is not essential to success.
That the cocoanut will grow and thrive upon the immediate seashore, in common with other plants, is simply an indication of its adaptability to environment. That it is at a positive disadvantage as a shore plant may be determined conclusively by anyone who will examine the root system of a seashore-grown tree upturned by a wash or tidal wave, and one uprooted from any cause, farther inland. It will be seen that the root system of the maritime plant is immensely larger than the other, and that a corresponding amount of energy has been expended in the search through much inert material to forage for the necessary plant food which the more favored inland species has found concentrated within a smaller zone.
The planting must be made in a thoroughly permeable soil.