CHAPTER II 



CLIMATE AND SOIL 



The man who will establish a coco-nut plantation will, 

 in selecting the location, take into consideration climate, 

 soil, danger from diseases, quantity and quality of labour, 

 the accessibility of supplies and markets, and the cost 

 of the land. Labour supply, value of land, and markets 

 are purely local questions, which must be settled in 

 each place for itself. The diseaseSof the coco-nuts will 

 be taken up in a separate chapter. With regard to the 

 climate and soil, practically everything of fundamental 

 importance follows directly from what has already been 

 said with regard to the physiology of the coco-nut. 



THE CLIMATE 



Climate is made up of various factors, as tempera- 

 ture, moisture, wind, light, and electricity. With regard 

 to electricity I can only quote Vanderstraaten, 1 who 

 says : " It has been generally noticed that a highly 

 electric condition of the atmosphere is extremely 

 favourable (to the production of blossom), but here 

 our knowledge ends." It is a matter of general 

 observation that trees struck by lightning will die. 

 And it is a widespread superstition in the Philippines 

 that unless such trees are promptly cut down their 

 neighbours also will die, but that if the tree which has 

 been struck is immediately cut down, then it will be 



1 Tropical Agriculturist, 32 (1909), 28. 

 19 



