ere 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 adaptability
to environment. That it is at a positive disadvantage as a shore plant
may be determined conclusively by anyone who will examine the root
system 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
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