II 



CLIMATE AND SOIL 25 



what damage is actually done to it by storms. During 

 several years of attention to this subject, including 

 observation of the effect of a storm-wind reaching 168 

 kilometres an hour, I have yet to see the first sound 

 trunk broken by the wiud, or the first tree uprooted, 

 unless its root system had already been exposed or 

 weakened. Typhoons certainly do break sound coco-nut 

 trees, but it is rarely indeed. Trunks extensively 

 channelled by beetles are comparatively often broken ; 

 and trees, the roots of which have been laid bare by 

 washing away the soil, or which grow in ground too 

 wet to permit the healthy growth of the roots, are 

 often overturned. The loss of such trees is not a 

 serious matter. 



Very severe storms weaken the trees and set them 

 back materially by breaking the leaves ; and they 

 sometimes destroy a considerable part of the crop in 

 sight by throwing down immature nuts, even the very 

 young ones, but vigorous trees entirely outgrow such 

 injury within a year. 



However, in places where beetles, especially coco-nut 

 weevils (red beetles), are a serious pest, violent storms 

 furnish conditions for their entrance and multiplication, 

 and in this way do damage which is neither insignificant 

 nor transient. This will be discussed more fully in the 

 treatment of diseases and pests. 



THE SOIL 



In books which deal with particular crops it is 

 customary to give rules as to the soils which are 

 suitable to the crops in question. In general, the same 

 soils are described as desirable for all crops ; so that 

 any one who would undertake to follow such rules would 

 find very little by which to decide whether a given soil 

 ought to be used for coco-nuts or for some other purpose. 

 Instead of giving directions of this kind, I propose to 

 refer to what we know about the root system and the 

 water relations of the coco- nut, and to trust to an 



