Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-08-11
CoCoANUT CULTURE.


Its beautiful palms, and mum beriug e6o, 900. 900 trees, yielding annually 1O,- 900, 900, 900 of cocoanuts.
 A recent approximate estimate of the area cultivated with the cocoanut palm gave the following result: British In- dia and dependencies, 300, 900; Central America, 25O, 900; Ceylon, 300, 900; East ern Archipelago and colonies $50, 900; Java and Sumatra, 22O, 900; Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, and African coast, 100, 900; Pacific islands, including Fiji, New Caledonia, etc, $50, 000; Siam and Cochin China, 100, 900, and West h. dies, 35, 1000.
 And when Florida shall add her 10,- 900 acres lying south of the twenty seventh parallel of north latitude, capa- ble of growing LOGO, 900 trees, we may see at no distant day the North Ameri- can cocoanut demanding no mean share of commercial attention
 For many years cocoanuts have grown on the coast of southern Florida, but owing to an extreme fondness for the green nuts manifested by those en- gagged in the sponge fishing along the coast, few nuts have been allowed to ripen, only sufficient to demonstrate that cocoanuts can be raised for several hundred miles along the coast of Flori- da, where the Gulf stream flows so close to the shore. The cocoanut in- iustry in that vicinity has received an impetus of late. Several northern cap italists have gone to Florida and em- parked in this industry, seeing Qike Col Sellers) millions in it. Within the past four years over 300, 900 nuts were planted on the coast of Florida.
 Such nuts as are wanted for planting 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 planted 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 att tention.
 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 salt water loving tree, it will thrive but a short distance from the seashore, nearness to salt water being absolutely essential to it's welfare In fact, is said no magnet is truer to the pole than this root of the coconut tree to the ocean; for when the root breaks through the husk it points directly towards 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 a long distance, thus ending that cocoanut palm, as it will not sprout a second time Could you examine a cocoanut when it in the process of sprouting you will find di- rectly beneath the sprouting eye a small, white, mushroom-shaped kernel, and in this little germ lies the life of the future tree. Shut up in it's prison like shell, and the shell surrounded by many inches thick of tough and tangled fiber, how is it to work it's way out and perform the duties assigned to it? For it is apparently soft and tender as a baby's hand.
 Soon it's tiny fingers begin boring their way out of the weakest eye; then, rending the tough, wooly fiber right and left, it forces itself to the surface and commences the campaign of life, send ing its shoot upwards to form the tree and downward to form the roots, still clinging to it's parent for support, until the entire inside of the shell is filled with round, ball-lilze substance that is formed by the congealed milk of the cocoanut. From it the roots first form ing receive their staff of life until the mother coke becomes exhausted, and, having fulfilled her mission, is deserted by her offspring and left useless mass of fiber.
 On grows the tree, sending deep into the ground its roots and high into the air its trunk until after lapse of from five to eight years it has attained a height of from forty to sixty feet, and then pays tribute to mother earth by bearing it's first fruit, and, under favor able circumstances, continuing to yield for more than half a century, giving its owner from 100 to 200 marketable 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 great pump in forcing to the nuts the immense quantity of water re- quired to fill them. This fbrous heart has wonderful Altering 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 CO., coanut a 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 fruit ing, 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 nature's s
 art. Appearing at the base of the long
 ragged leaves is a gourd-like sheath, green in color, and standing erect until
 its own weight causes it to bend down.
 ward, where it hangs until the stems it
 incloses, which are to bear and sustain