The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1891-08-12
cocoANur CULTURE.
How the Tree Is Started and Its Valua-
BILE Fruit Produced

of the cocoanut is India and the South
Sea Islands. it has become so widely
diffused by the hands of man and the
waves of the ocean that it is now a
prominent feature in almost every
tropical portion of the globe, covering
between 5000, 900 and 1900, 600 acres
with its beautiful palms, and number
ing 250, 900, 900 trees, yielding an
nually 10000, 100000 of cocoanuts.
A recent approximate estimate of
the area cultivated with the cocoauut
palm gave the following result: Brit
ish India and dependencies, 800, 600;
Central America, 250, 600; Ceylon. 300.-
600; Eastern Archipelago and colo
nies, $50, 900: Java and Sumatra, 22O,-
900; Mauritius, Madagascar Sey-
chelles and African coast, 100000;
Pacific islands, including FIJI, New
Caledonia, etc.. $4,000; Siam and
Cochin China, 100000 and West In
dies, 800. 600.
And when Florida shall add her 10.-
600 acres lying south of the twenty
seventh parallel of north latitude,
capable of growing 1000, 900 trees, we
may see at no distant day the North
American cocoanut demanding no
ulOdu SHdIC VI dllCHIlOu.
For many years cocoanuts have
grown on the coast of southern Flor
ida, but owing to an extreme fondness
for the green nuts manifested by those
engaged in the sponge fishing along
the coast, few nuts have been allowed
to ripen, only sufficient to demon
strate that cocoanuts can be raised for
several hundred miles along the coast
Of hn EI1lf m
flows so close to the shore. The CO.
coanut industry in that vicinity has
received an impetus of late. Several
northern capitalists have gone to Flor
ida and embarked in this industry,
it Within the past four years over
of Florida.
Such nuts as are wanted for plant
ing are gathered into heaps, or placed
under sheds, where they are allowed
to remain until the sprout shows itself
through the husk. When planted in
regular order holes about three feet
deep and from fifteen to thirty feet
apart are dug. In the hole the nut is
placed with care, and covered with
about one foot of soil The hole is
filled gradually as the sprout grows,
until it reaches the surface, when it is
left to itself, requiring no further at
tentiou.
Should the place where the cocoanut
is planted be any great distance from
the seashore quantity of salt is some
times placed in the hole, and some
times scraps of old iron, as, being
strictly saltwater loving tree, it will
thrive but short distance from the
seashore, nearness to sal water being
absolutely essential to its welfare. In
fact, it is said no magnet is truer to
the pole than is the root of the cocoa
nut tree to the ocean; for when the
root breaks through the husk it points
directly toward the sea- no matter in
what position the nut is placed in the
ground.
Boring its way downward the root
fastens itself so deep and firmly in the
ground that no tornado, no matter
how severe, has ever been known to
wrench it from it's moorings; but the
hurricane, so frequent in the tropics,
will often twist the trunks and carry
the broken portions long distance,
thus ending that cocoanut palm, as it
will not sprout second time. Could
you examine a cocoanut when in the
process of sprouting you will find
directly beneath the sprouting eye a
small, white, mushroom-shaped ker-
mel, and in this little germ lies the life
of the future tree. Shut up in it's
prison-like shell, and the shell sur
rounded by many inches thick of tough
and tangled fibre, how is it to work its
way out and perform the duty assigned
to it? For it is apparently soft and
tender as baby's hand.
Soon its tiny fingers begin boring
their way out of the weakest eve: then,
rending the tough woody fibre right
and left, it forces itself to the surface
and commences the campaign of life,
sending its shoot upward to form the
tree and downward to form the roots,
still clinging to its parent for support.
until the entire inside of the shell is
filled with a round, ball-like substance
that is formed by the CONCEALED milk
of the cocoanut. From it the roots
fast forming receive their staff of life
until the mother coke becomes ex-
hausted and, having fulfilled her mis-
sion, is deserted by her offspring and
left useless mass of fibre.
On grows the tree, sending deep in
to the ground its roots and high into
the air its trunk until after lapse of
from live to eight years it has attained
a height of from forty to sixty feet.
and then pays tribute to mother earth
by bearing its first fruit, and, under
favorable circumstances, continuing to
yield for more than half century,
giving its owner from 100 to 200 mar
ketable nuts year.
Through the center of the trunk of
the cocoanut tree is a soft, tibrous
heart which furnishes the life of the
tree and acts as a great pump in fore
ing to the nuts the immense quantity
of water required to fill them. This
fibrous heart has a wonderful tiltering
power, for no matter in what location
the tree may be growing, either upon
the beach or in the malarial swamps
near the pools of stagnant water, when
nature has done her work she deposits
in the cocoanut sparkling liquid as
clear as crystal and as cool as if drawn
from the deepest well in our northern
yards. Having no particular season
for fruiting, but bearing all the year
round, blossoms, ripe and green fruit
may be found on the same tree.
The blossom of the cocoanut is a
most beautiful and peculiar work of
natures art. Appearing at the base
OF the long ragged leaves is a gourd-
like sheath, green in color, and stand
ing erect until its own weight causes
1t to bend downward, where it hangs
until the stems it encloses, which are
to bear and sustain the nuts, are suffi-
GENTLY matured to proceed on their
journey without protection. When
this outer covering splits open it re-
veals cluster of ragged stems, upon
each of which you will find miniature
cocoanuts, requiring about fourteen
months to ripen. Merchants Revtee0.
Music in the River.