Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-08-14

Only cocoanut trees of all sizes So we ride
for two or three hours. We have long ago |
lost all idea of where we are or where we
came from. But each tree has mark on it, |
and our guide can read that mark and knows |
just where we are. Nellie begins to get tired, |
and Tom wonders if we have to go back the
way we came when suddenly, through the
trees, we see house Just before us, and we
are astonished to find as we ride up, that 1t
is the same one we left few hours ago.
After a rest we will go out and see what
becomes of the nuts. But couple of the
nuts will help us rest. Not one of the ripe
ones, Tom. We will give you taste of
those by-and-by but we don't eat ripe cocoa
nuts in Ceylon Here is one about half
grown. We take knife and easily cut
through the green shuck and here we have
two nice clean cups, or bowls, each filed
with milk. Try IL now, each Of you. 1t is
as near like ice water as is good for us,
though it grew up there in the hot sun.
And what a flavor Don't we wish every
one of those Vermont children could have
drink of one Of these young cocoanuts this
hot day. Now try the other one. Il is per-
haps two-thirds grown. We cut it the same
way, and now taste it with a spoon 1t is
the best pudding you ever ate think you
will all agree with me that the cocoanut is
the best fruit that grows. Pineapples and
oranges and mangoes are good but one
cocoanut is worth a bushel of them. II is
very nutritious food, too One of those men
at work yonder will want no other dinner
than a single cocoanut.
A tired missionary was one day coming
home from long and hard days work Ithad
been very hot day, and he was not a strong
man. Almost exhausted, he stopped at the
| house of man who but little while be-
fore had given mp his idol religion and be-
come a Christian. When the good man saw
how weak the missionary was, he hurried
out and brought from tree in the yard
young cocoanut and, cutting it open, gave
part of it to his visitor. think he will al
ways remember how that nut tasted 1t was
| Just what he needed, and he soon was able
TO go on and finish his ride But when he
thanked the good man for it, he replied at
once "No, do not thank me- did not
make that cocoanut." Children, I have
thought a great many times | should like to
take some of these strange men in Vermont,
who say they don't believe there is God,
out to Ceylon. ] should like to let them ride
in this hot sun till they were thoroughly
tired out and then let them call and be re-
freshed by one of that good mans cocoanuts.
And when they thanked him for it, should
like to let them hear him say No, do not
thank me ; | did not make that cocoanut." !
think it would be better than any sermon
could preach to them
Now, if you are rested, for walk about
the garden and yard. What beautiful
fence that is, made of braided cocoanut
leaves. Those things are " Cadians" with
which it is made. They are made by braid.
ing the leaflets of one-half leaf. They are
used for shingles also, and make very neat
and good roof-and as you can buy them.
perhaps six feet long and three feet WIDE
for about ten cents hundred, it doesn't cost
much to single house. Here is piece OF
the wood of the cocoanut. 1t is beautiful,
too-very hard and heavy, but it is of rich
cinnamon color notified with little black
spots. Here are the "Copperah Sheds"
They are bringing in carloads of those ripe
nuts. and here are great many men at
| lne 1.,,f
with which he chops the cocoanuts in two.
Then he pours out the water on the ground,
prizes out the white, hard meat from each
half, and throws it in one pile and the shells
in another. No. Tom, it isn't for food. That
water tastes like the water you have found in
the cocoanuts at the store in Vermont, but it
is rancid and not fit to drink, and the meat
tough and tasteless and indigestible. You
will like it better when it has wilted a little
in the sun. 1t will taste like chestnut then.
But these great piles of it are to be carried
off to the mill yonder, and ground up, and
pressed for the oil which comes from it. 1t
is very clear oil. We burn it in our lamps,
and think it is good deal better than kero
sene The great ships come to Ceylon and
carry off this oil to England France and
America, where it is used for great many
things. This oil is the most valuable part
of the cocoanut, and this Island of Ceylon
alone sends to England more than two mil
lion gallons of it every year.
Another company of men are at work OIL
the husks. They are separated from the
black Shells and then carted away to the
seashore. Along on the beach are great
pits dug in the sand and filed with sea
water. The loads of shucks are dropped
into them and left there till they are SC
soaked up that they are only great mass
of fibre. That is called "coir," and it is
made into rope or Irvine. Those great thick
rough carpets, in the aises of the Vermont
churches, are made of it, The hard, black
shells are used for fuel. We have to buy
them for the kitchen fire sometimes. | think
they cost about five cents thousand. So
, the whole of the cocoanut tree is useful
; Indeed, it is one of the greatest gifts of a
kind heavenly Father to those who do not
deserve any such gifts from him.
As we ride home by night we see a great
, many sights by the roadside that remind us
l., of this-that those to whom God has given
! the cocoanut are not worthy of it, but that
instead of thanking him for it, they give to
senseless idols the honor due to God alone
1 I'll try to tell you of some of those sights in
5 my next letter.
31.,,