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SECOND BOOK. 
it must be handled tenderly, and cut a week or ten 
days before it is ripe. 
THE COCOA-NUT PALM. 
1. Tom and Will were spending the day with 
their father, and were watching the men as they 
put out the little seedling palms that were to form 
a new cocoa-nut plantation. 
The land chosen was near the sandy sea-shore; 
for, as Mr. Jones told his boys, the cocoa-nut palm 
delights in sea-breezes, and needs either an alluvial 
soil, near the mouths of rivers, or a sandy soil by 
the coast. 
2. “Almost everywhere in the tropics,” he said, 
“ it may be seen fringing the low shores, and bend- 
ing out towards the sea as if to meet the full force 
of the breeze from the salt water.” 
The work of lining the land had been done, and 
holes had been dug about ten yards apart, ready for 
the young palms which the men were planting. 
3 . “ Why do you put the plants down so low in 
the holes?” Tom asked. “ Their heads don’t even 
rise to the level of the ground.” 
“We want to make sure that the palms get a 
good deep hold of the soil by their roots,” said his 
father. “ The holes will get filled up in time, as 
the plant grows.” 
