Arizona republican., 1892-05-04
COCOANUT TREES.
THEY ARE GROWN VERY SUCCESS
 FULLY IN SOUTH FLORIDA.

Although Introduced Only Sixteen Years
 Ago, the state Could Not Now Do Very
 weu Without Them-some of the Many
 Uses the Cocoanut Is Put To. While the cocoauut tree abounds in South Florida it is not not native of the section nor has the fruit been culti- vated here for any great length of time. About sixteen ye,rs ago Bahama vessel was wrecked off the coast, near Jupiter inlet. Soon after the waves be- gan bringing the cargo ashore, among which were found large number of cocoanuts. Residents were very few in this section at that time, but they gathered together and appropriated whatever came to them.
 These cocoanuts were considered great prizes and were at once planted. The soil was found to be favorable to the growth and they thrived wonderfully. Thus was introduced the culture of the nut upon the soil of the North American continent. In Dade county, one of the southernmost counties of the state, which has a sea front of 150 miles, there are now groves of great beauty contain ing from 100 to 6,O00 trees.
 Cocoanut culture is very simple. The ripe nut is plucked from the tree and, in tho outer husk that surrounds it, is put under ground, lightly covered with soil. The first shoot should make it's appear ance 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. If the nut is planted as a nursery stock the husk is left on, as the young plant is very ten der, and it seems that growth out of the husk has tendency to make strong the reedlike joints. If it be first planted where it 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 appearances dozen or more fingers, Looking like grains of corn strung on wire about foot in length. These grains are young nuts.
 They ripen in years time, and there after until its death the tree is never without fruit in various stages of ripe ness, from tiny lobe the size of pea to ripe nuts, and there is not a day in the year when the ripe nuts cannot be secured. It has been demonstrated in other countries that the cocoaHut tree will bear fruit for twenty-five years. To what age they live has not been ascer- tained.
 The trees make a most beautiful and imposing grove, being truly tropical in their appearance. As they are planted only about twenty feet apart, they cast a thick, unvarying shade. They ar ever green, as is most tropical foliage, and their gracefulness, with the great height they attain, makes them desirable ad- dition to a home in the far south. The diameter of the tree ranges from one foot to four, and they attain height of l25 feet, having as many as 400 nuts on them at one time.
 The old fashioned method of grating the nut has been superseded by ma chine for grinding, and the residents of the southern country keep on hand for their use fresh supply of homemade | desiccated cocoanut, from which various ! tOothsOme dishes are prepared. The product is becoming more generally known by reason of it's excellent fiber, and the 'cloth, a strong, fibrous bark, that grows far above the ground and is utilized in many ways. If the use of cocoanut butter ever becomes common the owner of grove of these trees will see his fortune ahead. The butter is made from the oil of the nut, expressed by machinery.
 Even the raw grated nut is an excel lent substitute for shortening" in bread, | the grated nut in the same quantity being substituted for lard. The cooking process seems to destroy entirely the vegetable taste and appearance, and bis cult made with it are pronounced as good as real cream biscuit.
 Shorn of it's cocoanut growth, tropi- cal country would certainly be less at tractive in appearance. The long, feathery leaves that undulate so grace fully in the breeze which sighs among them, the everlasting green" of their cOloring, their tall stateliness and their symmetry beautify the whole country where they grow-especially the south Florida country, where they grow in such profusion. Louis Republic.