The soils for cocoanut growing are best selected by the process of
exclusion. The study of the root development of the palm will prove
to be an unerring guide to proper soil selection.
The roots of monocotyledons, to which great division this palm belongs,
are devoid of the well-defined descending axis, which is possessed
by most tree plants, and is often so strongly developed as to permit
of rock cleavage and the withdrawal of food supplies from great depths.
The cocoanut has no such provision for its support. Its subterranean
parts are simply a mat-like expanse of thick, fleshy, worm-like
growths, devoid of any feeders other than those provided at the
extreme tips of the relatively few roots. These roots are fleshy (not
fibrous) and can not thrive in any soil through which they may not grow
freely in search of sustenance. It then becomes obvious that stiff,
tenacious, or waxy soils, however rich, are wholly unsuitable. All
very heavy lands, or those that break up into solid, impervious lumps,
and, lastly, any land underlaid near the surface with bed rocks or
impervious clays or conglomerates, are naturally excluded. All other
soils, susceptible of proper drainage, may be considered appropriate
to the growth of the palm. Spons (Encyclop.) advocates light, sandy
soils. Simmonds (Trop. Agric.) names nine different varieties suitable
for this purpose, describing each at tedious length, and laying more
or less emphasis upon a sandy mixture. These might all have been
covered by the single word "permeable."
As a matter of fact every grain of sand in excess of that required to
secure a condition of perfect permeability is a positive disadvantage
and must be paid for by a correspondingly larger area of cultivation
and by future soil amendment. For the rest, the richer and deeper
the soil the less the expense of maintaining soil fertility.
The preparatory work of establishing an orchard is light, provided
the location is not one demanding the opening of drainage canals,
and on lands of good porosity it involves neither subsoiling nor a
deeper plowing than to effectually cover the sod or any minor weed
growths with which it may be covered.
It has long been the reprehensible practice of cocoanut growers to
merely dig pits, manure them, set the plants therein, and permit
the intervening lands (except immediately about the trees) to run to
weeds or jungle.
In the Philippines the native planter has not yet progressed beyond
the pit stage, nor do his subsequent cultural activities include more
than the occasional "boloing" of such weeds as threaten to choke and
exterminate the young plants.
Fortunately it will not be long till the force and influence of
example are sure to be felt by our own planters. The progressive
German colonist of Kamerun, German East Africa, and the South
Pacific Islands, as well as the French in Congo and Madagascar,
are vigorously practicing conventional, modern orchard methods in
the treatment of their cocoanut groves, and it is amazing to read
of discussions between Ceylon and Indian nut growers as to the best
method of tethering cattle upon cocoanut palms in pasture, so as to
obtain the most benefit from their excreta.
With an intelligent study of the plant and its characteristics
it is believed that our native planter may put into practical use
the knowledge that the veteran Indian planter has in fifty years
failed to learn or utilize. He will learn that in time the entire
superficies of his orchard will be required by the wide-spreading,
surface-feeding roots of the trees, and that pasture crops of any
kind, grown for any purpose other than soiling or for green manuring,
are prejudicial to future success. He will know that the initial
preparation of all of his orchard and its continuous maintenance in
good cultivation are essential not only to the future welfare of
his trees but as a necessary means in connection with a judicious
intermediate crop rotation.
Hence the preparatory requirements may be summed up as such preliminary
soil breaking as would be required for a corn crop in similar lands,
succeeded by such superficial plowings and cultivations as would be
required to raise a cotton or any other of the so-called hoed crops.