Part 2 (1/2)
SELECTION OF LOCATION.
In the selection of a site for a cocoanut grove it is best to select land near the seash.o.r.e 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 seash.o.r.e, in common with other plants, is simply an indication of its adaptability to environment. That it is at a positive disadvantage as a sh.o.r.e plant may be determined conclusively by anyone who will examine the root system of a seash.o.r.e-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.
The thick, fleshy roots of the newly upturned palm are loaded with water, and tell us that an inexhaustible store of this fluid is an indispensable element of success. If further evidence of this were required, the testimony of drooping leaves and of crops shrunken from one-half to two-thirds, throughout the cocoanut districts and upon our own orchard in Mindanao, as the result of drought, confirm it and bespeak the necessity of copious water at all times.
The living tree upon the sea sands further emphasizes this necessity; for, while its roots are lapped by the tides, it never flags or wilts, and from this we may gather the added value of a site which can be irrigated. The careful observer will note that along miles of sea beach, among hundreds of trees whose roots are either in actual contact with the incoming waves, or subjected to the subterranean influence of the sea, there will never be so much as one tree growing in any beach basin which collects and holds tidal water for even a brief time; and that, notwithstanding the large number of nuts that must have found lodgment and favorable germinating influence in such places, none succeed in growing. From this we may derive the a.s.surance that the desired water must be in motion and that land near stagnant water, or marsh land, is unsuitable to the plant.
It may frequently be observed that trees will be found growing fairly thriftily upon mounds or hummocks, in places invaded by flood or other waters which, by reason of backing or damming up, have become stagnant. An examination of the roots of an overthrown tree in such a locality will show that all of those in the submerged zone have perished and rotted away, but that such is the vitality and recuperative energy of the tree that it has thrown out a new feeding system in the dryer soil of the mound immediately surrounding the stem, which has been sufficient to successfully carry on the functions of nutrition, but altogether ineffective to anchor the tree securely, or to prevent its prostration before the first heavy gale.
While this phase of the question will receive more attention when we come to consider the chemistry of suitable manures, it may be said that, although a.n.a.lysis of the cocoanut ash derived from beach-grown nuts shows a larger percentage of those salts that abound in sea water than those grown inland, yet the equal vigor, vitality, and fruitfulness of the latter simply confirm the plant's exceptional adaptability to environment and ability to take up and decompose, without detriment, the salts of sea or brackish waters. As a victim to the maritime idea, the writer in 1886 planted, far inland, several hundred nuts in beds especially devised to reproduce littoral conditions; sh.o.r.e gravel, sea sand, broken sh.e.l.ls, and salt derived from sea water being used in preparing the seed beds. The starting growth was unexcelled. Then came a long period of yellowing decline and almost suspended animation, ultimately followed by a complete restoration to health and vigor. The early excellent growth was due to the fact that the first nourishment of the plant is entirely derived from the endosperm, and careful lifting of the young plants disclosed the fact that recovery from their moribund condition was, in every instance, coincident with the time that the roots first succeeded in working through the unpalatable mess about them into the outlying good, sweet soil.
The exposure of the plantation is an important consideration, and a maritime site should be selected in preference to one far inland, unless it be on an open, unprotected flat, exposed to the influence of every breeze or the fiercest gales that blow.
The structure of the cocoanut seems well fitted to endure winds of almost any force, and that a remarkably abundant and strong circulation of air is essential to its best development is well shown by comparing a tree subjected to it with the wretched, spindling specimen growing in a sheltered glen or ravine.
Strong confirmation of this may be found within the artificial environment of a plant conservatory, where it is feasible to reproduce, in the minute detail of soil, water, temperature, and humidity, every essential to its welfare except a good, strong breeze. As a consequence, the palm languishes and it has long been deemed, on this account, one of the most rebellious subjects introduced into palm-house cultivation.
THE SOIL.
The soils for cocoanut growing are best selected by the process of exclusion. The study of the root development of the palm will prove to be an unerring guide to proper soil selection.
The roots of monocotyledons, to which great division this palm belongs, are devoid of the well-defined descending axis, which is possessed by most tree plants, and is often so strongly developed as to permit of rock cleavage and the withdrawal of food supplies from great depths.
The cocoanut has no such provision for its support. Its subterranean parts are simply a mat-like expanse of thick, fleshy, worm-like growths, devoid of any feeders other than those provided at the extreme tips of the relatively few roots. These roots are fleshy (not fibrous) and can not thrive in any soil through which they may not grow freely in search of sustenance. It then becomes obvious that stiff, tenacious, or waxy soils, however rich, are wholly unsuitable. All very heavy lands, or those that break up into solid, impervious lumps, and, lastly, any land underlaid near the surface with bed rocks or impervious clays or conglomerates, are naturally excluded. All other soils, susceptible of proper drainage, may be considered appropriate to the growth of the palm. Spons (Encyclop.) advocates light, sandy soils. Simmonds (Trop. Agric.) names nine different varieties suitable for this purpose, describing each at tedious length, and laying more or less emphasis upon a sandy mixture. These might all have been covered by the single word ”permeable.”
As a matter of fact every grain of sand in excess of that required to secure a condition of perfect permeability is a positive disadvantage and must be paid for by a correspondingly larger area of cultivation and by future soil amendment. For the rest, the richer and deeper the soil the less the expense of maintaining soil fertility.
The preparatory work of establis.h.i.+ng an orchard is light, provided the location is not one demanding the opening of drainage ca.n.a.ls, and on lands of good porosity it involves neither subsoiling nor a deeper plowing than to effectually cover the sod or any minor weed growths with which it may be covered.
It has long been the reprehensible practice of cocoanut growers to merely dig pits, manure them, set the plants therein, and permit the intervening lands (except immediately about the trees) to run to weeds or jungle.
In the Philippines the native planter has not yet progressed beyond the pit stage, nor do his subsequent cultural activities include more than the occasional ”boloing” of such weeds as threaten to choke and exterminate the young plants.
Fortunately it will not be long till the force and influence of example are sure to be felt by our own planters. The progressive German colonist of Kamerun, German East Africa, and the South Pacific Islands, as well as the French in Congo and Madagascar, are vigorously practicing conventional, modern orchard methods in the treatment of their cocoanut groves, and it is amazing to read of discussions between Ceylon and Indian nut growers as to the best method of tethering cattle upon cocoanut palms in pasture, so as to obtain the most benefit from their excreta.
With an intelligent study of the plant and its characteristics it is believed that our native planter may put into practical use the knowledge that the veteran Indian planter has in fifty years failed to learn or utilize. He will learn that in time the entire superficies of his orchard will be required by the wide-spreading, surface-feeding roots of the trees, and that pasture crops of any kind, grown for any purpose other than soiling or for green manuring, are prejudicial to future success. He will know that the initial preparation of all of his orchard and its continuous maintenance in good cultivation are essential not only to the future welfare of his trees but as a necessary means in connection with a judicious intermediate crop rotation.
Hence the preparatory requirements may be summed up as such preliminary soil breaking as would be required for a corn crop in similar lands, succeeded by such superficial plowings and cultivations as would be required to raise a cotton or any other of the so-called hoed crops.
SEED SELECTION.
Preliminary to planting the very important question of seed selection calls for close scrutiny on the planter's part.