Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1892-09-08
The cOcoANUT IN AMERICA.
Only sixteen Years Ago the First seeds
Were Planted.

Only Sixteen Years Ago the First Seeds
We're Planted.
While the cocoanut tree abounds
in South Florida it is not native of
the section, nor has the fruit been
cultivated there for any great length
of time. About sixteen wears ago a
Bahama vessel was wrecked of the
coast. near Jutiper Inlet. Soon after
the waves began bringing the cargo
ashore, among which were found a
large number of cocoanuts- Resi-
dents were very few in this section at
that time, but they gathered together
and appropriated whatever came to
them. These cOcoanuts were consid-
cred great prizes and were at once
planted. The soil was found to be
indigenous to their growth and they
thriVed wonderfully. Thus was in
troduced the culture of the nut upon
the soil Of the North American CONT
nent. In Dade County, one of the
southernmost counties of the State,
which has a sea front of $50 miles,
there are now groves of great beauty,
containing from 100 TO 5000 trees.
Cocoanut culture is very simple.
The ripe nut is plucked from the tree
and, in the outer husk that sur
rounded it, is put under ground,
| lightly covered with soil. The first
shoot should make its appearance in
one month after planting, but it is
| often two before it comes. When it
| is about foot high it is transplanted
to its permanent resting place. II
| the nut is planted as a nursery stock
the husk is left on, as the young
| plant is very tender, and it seems
/ that a growth out of the husks has a
| tendency to make stronger the reed
! like joints. II it be first planted
where 1t is to remain the husk is
usually removed. For the first year
the plant requires careful protection
from the winds, but it. gradually
grows hardy, and at the end of six
years begins bearing. The blooms
make their appearance dozen or
more fingers, looking like grains of
corn strung on wire about a foot in
| length. tThese grains are the young
nuts They ripen in a years time and
thereafter until its death the tree is
never without fruit in various stages
OF ripeness, from the tiny lobe the
size of a pea, to ripe nuts. and there
is not day in the year when ripe
nuts cannot be secured. 1t has been
| demonstrated in other countries that
the cocoanut tree will bear fruit for
% years. To what age they live has
not been ascertained.
The trees make a most beautiful
and imposing grove, being truly trop-
ical in their appearance. AS they are
planted only about twenty feet apart,
they cast a thick. unvarying shade.
They are evergreen, as is most trop-
ical foliage, and their gracefulness,
with the great height they attain,
makes them desirable adj
dition to a home in the far South.
The diameter Of the tree ranges from
one foot to four, and they attain a
heighth Of 125 feet, having as high
as 400 nuts on them at one time.
Shorn of its cocoanut growth a
tropical country would certainly be
less attractive in appearance. The
long feathery leaves that undulate SO
| gracefully in the breeze which signs
among them. the everlasting green"
of their cOloring, their tall stateli-
ness and their symmetry, beautify the
whole country where they groves
pecially the South Florida country,
where they grow in such profusion-