14 



Its further uses are, in general, those current in the Orient. Briefly 

 summed up, its timber is employed in every form of house construction 

 its foliage in making mats, sacks, and thatches; its fruit in curry am 

 sweetmeats; its oil for medicine, cookery, and illumination; its various 

 juices in the manufacture of wines, spirits, sugar, and vinegar; while 

 not to overlook a final and not inconsiderable Filipino product, th< 

 splinters of the midrib are used in making toothpicks. 



CULTIVATION. 



SELECTION OF LOCATION. 



In the selection of a site for a cocoanut grove it is best to select lane 

 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 adaptibility 

 to environment. That it is at a positive disadvantage as a shore plant 

 may be determined conclusively by anyone who will examine the root sys- 

 tem 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. 



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 indis- 

 pensable 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 pur 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 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 hun- 

 dreds of trees whose roots are either in actual contact with the incoming 



