Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-08-17
Value of the COcOanut.

SEVEN years, oftener ten and more,
must elapse between planting and
fruit. In the Hawaiian Islands the
adage, "Whs plants a c0cOanut or
chard Will not live to eat its fruit,
had q superstitious power that re-
strained men with e desire for long
life from planting the fatal tree. But
in the Gilbert Islands men have no
such fear. The cOcOanut tree is their
faithful father and mother. Its long.
green leaves, seldom less than twelve
feet, often twenty from heel to point.
when the midrib is divided and the
segments braided make floor mats.
make bed mattresses, make blankets.
make windows, doors, etc. The same
tough midribs, with the palmlets at
tached, make the largest shingles eX-
tant, and when stripped they make
tishing-rods, fencing lumber, and even
floor rods and joists, while the narrow
leaflets, tied in a long, cigar-shaped
torch, illuminate the nights without
stars and the black water where fisher
men scoop up daZed fiying-fSh with
wings eighteen inches from tip to tip.
The fiber of the husk properly curved
gives strong material for Irvine cord
and rope, be it a hair fish-Iine, a main
sail halyard, a canoe haWSer. or a shark
rope. The shell Of the nut makes a
hot charcoal unequaled for any char
coal purpose. The milk is Gods gift
to thirsty land where no rains fall
eight months out Of twelve, and the
springs of water are all salt. There
are two milks to a cocoanut. one the
natural water the other artificial, pro-
duced by scraping fine the white meat
and Immediately subiecting its snowy
fakes to violent compression. The
lacteous fluid can hardly be told
from new milk, and answers
good purpose in tea and cot
fee. CocOanut meat when young
is soft like jelly, tender as cream and
delicious as custard eaten with silver
spoon. When hard it cuts, the bows
know how, like tough cheese. The
Gilbert Islanders have no better bread.
and with handful of fish and a big
segment of old cocoanut are perfectly
happy. COcoanut oil is produced by
scraping the dry nut into small shay
ings, exposing them to the hot sun
until the rancid oil begins to stew out,
and then subjecting the fragrant mass
20 heavy pressure. COcoanut oil is
worth about ten cents a gallon TO the
producer. One hundred common nuts
will make a gallon of cocoanut oil.
When bought for money 800 or 400
ripe nuts go for a dollar to the traders
So far from having exhausted the
use Of this wonderful tree, that most
indispensable to the Gilbert Islanders
has not been mentiOned-Sap With
out cocoanut sap these islanders would
late. But few own land or trees. and
these favored few own the nuts. The
ancient law that protects the property
rights in eatable cocoanuts permits the
poorest slave to cut sap on the rich
mans land. This sap flows from the
bud which stands on the tree like an
unhusked ear of corn, swathed tightly
and its small end cut off. 1t is drunk
when fresh and sweet and will sustain
life and strength unaided. 1t is also
drunk when old and fermented, and
then cocoanut toddy is as vile and
cursed drink as ever made riot or
committed drunken murder. Only
eighty murders were attributed to this
Intoxicating cause on seven islands
during the first six months of 1875.
The trees are in blossom all the year, so