The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1894-03-02
; THE COCOANUT TREE.
1t Furnishes Food, Shelter and
Employment to Thousands.
some Interesting Facts Concerning the
Rearing of the Plant PIanta-
tions-Its Principal


tions-Its Principal
Products.
This palm does not grow spontane-
ously on Key West or on any of the
other Florida islands. as the violent
north winds which often prevail in
winter reduce the temperature of
southern Florida too low for this heat
loving tree. although when planted
and cared for while young it grows to
moderate size on the keys, and some
times bears fruit; otherwise the nuts
which are east upon those shores by
the gulf stream would have produced
plants that would gradually have GOV
cred them. for it is in this way that the
cOcoanut has been able gradually to
spread over all the sandy coral shores
of the tropics of the two worlds The
place of its first home is uncertain. 1t
was believed by the younger Candolle
to have first appeared on some of the
islands of the Indian archipelago
whence it was carried either by ocean
currents or by man to the southern
coast of Asia. east tropical Africa, and
to the islands and shores of Pacific
tropical America. Undoubtedly it was
brought by man To the West Indies and
Brazil after the discovery of America
by Europeans. although it has now SO
spread through the action of ocean
currents or by the agency of man, that
it has every appearance of being in
digenOuS on the shores of east tropical
America.
The cocoanut palm, says Garden and
Forest, is a magnificent plant, well
named "a prince of the vegetable
kingdom" with tall, slender columnar
stem eighty or hundred feet high,
and rich pale yellow-green leaves
which are thirty or forty feet long, and
tlutter and rustic with every breath of
wind.
The cocoanut grows only near the
shore, where its roots, penetrating the
sandy soil, may drink freely from clear
underground springs. OF all trees it
is the most useful to man, furnishing
food, shelter and employment to hun
dreds of thousands of the human race.
In tropical countries, especially in
southern India and Malaga. the cocoa
nut supplies to whole communities the
chief necessities of life Every part is
useful; the roots are considered a rem
edy against fevers; from the trunk
houses, boats and furniture are made;
the leaves furnish the thatch for
houses and the material from which
baskets, hats, mats and innumera bic
other articles are made; the network
of fiberS at their base is used for
sieves and is woven into cloth; from
the young flower stalks a palm wine,
called toddy, is obtained, from which
arrack, a fiery alcoholic drink, is dis
titled. The value of the fruit is well
known. From the husk, which is
called coir, commercially, cordage,
bedding, mats, brushes and other ar
ticles are manufactured. In the
tropics, lamps, drinking vessels and
spoons are made from the hard shells
The albumen of the seed contains large
quantities of oil, used in the east fo:
cooking and in illuminating; in Europe
and the United States il is often made
into soap and candles, yielding, after
the oil is extracted, a refuse valuable
as food for cattle, or as a fertilizer.
In some parts of the tropics the kernel
of the seed forms the chief food of the
inhabitants. The cool milky fluid
which fills the cavity of the fruit when
the nut is young affords agreeable
beverage and the albumen of the young
nut, which is soft and jelly like, is nu
tritious and of delicate flavor.
AS might be expected in the case of
plant of such value, it is often care
fully and extensively cultivated in
many countries, and numerous vari-
cites, differing in the size, shape and
quality of the fruit, are now known
The cocoanut is propagated by seeds;
the nuts are sown in nursery beds, and
at the end of six or eight months the
seedlings are large enough to plant
The plants are usually set twenty-five
feet apart each way in carefully pre-
pared beds filed with rich surface soil
Once established, plantation of co
coanuts requires little care beyond wa
tering, which is necessary in its early
years to insure rapid and vigorou
growth. In good soil the trees usually
begin To flower at the end of five or six
years, and may be expected TO be in
full bearing in from eight to twelve
years. Thirty nuts from a tree is con
sidered n fair average yield. although
individual trees have been known TO
produce an average of three hundred
nuts during period of ten years. An
application of manure increases the
yield of the trees, although probably
the value of the additional crop OBJ
tanned in this way is hardly large
enough to justify much expenditure.