The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-31
C0C0ANUT MILK IN CUBA.
NEW DELICACY WILL MAKE ONE
WISH FOR 4 GIRAFFE's NECK.

nuts and PineappIcs, which BE-
fore the War Were Remunerative
PrOducts-DeIight of the Mill,
TrickIe in Its Native WiIds.
From the Philadelphia Record
Next to bananas, the most important
product of Eastern Cuba is cocoanuus.
The trees grow rapidly without cultiva-
ton. and every mans field is fringed with
them. F'ruiters buy the nuts at the rate
of s. the thousand; and they are hulled
on the island, ground in primitive mills
and pressed for oil. Or, correctly speak
ing. We should put 1t in the past tense
and say this was done up to a few weeks
ago. Now every industry. however sim
pie, is paralyzed. Spanish soldiers almost
as hungry as the starving people, occupy
every village and hamlet and prey like To-
Gusts on the devastated lands.
The Cuban process of extracting oil
from the cocoanut resembles that by
which Texans make oil from cotton seed
The cake" or solid residue is fed to the
pigs-about the only live stock" ever
successfully raised in Eastern Cuba-and
the shells are used for fuel in the sugar
factories So far the oil has been locally
employed only as a lubricator for sugar
making machlnery-a wicked waste OF
valuable material, It seems to those who
are familiar with the splendid POSSIBLE
ties of the product. Here is an unequall-
ed opening for the manufacturer of palm
oil soap, cocoa-fibre, mats, hats. etc, &c
say nothing of the hundred other uses to
flbres, may be put The saying goes that
a cocoa tree bears a nut for every day in
the year. In time of peace one might buy
a dozen nuts for a twenty-cent coin any
where in the rural districts Of Cuba; and
he who has never tasted the milk from
one freshly gathered can have no idea
what is meant by "a draught fit for the
gods" In their proper state, however
the nuts are not brown and hard. as you
see them In Northern markets; they look
like enormous pale green apples slightly
elongated-for each still wears its Robin
Hood jacket which Is removed before
shipment. Being stll "allve," as they say
on the island, its smell is soft and easily
cut with the maehete or long-bladed knife
which every countryman carries; or your
own pocket knife may answer the pur-
pose. Make a hole in one end of the nut
about the size of a half dollar and out
gushes the milk" like a living spring
not by any means such sour stuff as you
have seen come out Of cocoanuts at home
white as chalk and thick as buttermllk
Give one of those imported things TO q
monkey. pining IN captivity for It's native
food, and he will refuse it with scorn and
Indignation.
The trouble is that the cocoanuts oil
commerce are gathered before they ar,
ripe and entirely spoiled in transit. The
fluid shut up within II should have no sug-
gestion of milk, but be colorless as water
with a slight sparkle like that from som'
clear mountain spring except for a slightly
sweet and most delicious flavor; and i
freshly picked in The early morning, afte
the nut has been swinging all night In tn
cool breeze, the liquid Is almost ice cold
Where cocoanuts grow you never see in
side of their shells any of that hard whit
layer which Northerners CRATE and 'des
iccate" Zone might as well say desecrate
for in its best estate The nut has no sucl
substance; only a creamy white film in
side of IT, hardly thicker than your thumb
nail, which is scraped off with a spool
when eaten. Before drinking the juice tn
"tenderfoot" generally pours it out int
another vessel Than that which nature in
tended; but the soph sticated epicure tilt
the cocoanut at just the right angle 10 le
the milk" trickle gently down his throa
and like the old topper we have heard OF
he wishes his throat was mile long
There Is nothing in the wide world NOR
nourishing or fattening, more heaith-re
storing and youth-preserving. Emaciate'
invalids are recommended to begin on tn
juice of half a dozen nuts a day, the dos
10 be increased according to the patient
inclination. And the invalid Is yet to b.
discovered who does not develop a tast
for it so rapidly that in a weeks time hal
a dozen nuts at a single sitting will hard.
satisfy him. Each full-grown nut con
tains nearly a pint of this true fountain
of youth" the same, perhaps, which tn
old Conquistadores sought Vainly far AM
wide, expecting to find 1t gushing out o
the earth in some sequestered spot, insteae
of hanging, green and beautiful, every
where overhead The big nuts grow II
punches, five or six on stem, away NJ
near The top of the tall tree, just under III
crown Of plume-like leaves. native
young or old thinks nothing of shining
up a smooth branches trunk. which
looks like a telegraph pole, TOWERING
straight and slender from SO to 100 fee
whacking off the nuts with his machete
Carried up in his teeth, and tossing then
down with the ease and agility of his an
cestors, the monkeys. No cocoanut ever
fallS from the parent SlciH uhNh IL - wv
old and wlthered to be good for anything
The poorest denizens of the tropics woulc
disdain to eat such windfalls, and so they
are shipped to The North, to be eaten By
those who know no better
Nowhere on the globe do pineapplei
thrive as in Eastern Cuba, where the con
ditions of soil and climate bring "th'
golden apples of Hesperides" to absolute
perfection, yet the pineapple industry has
never had much attention In this section
Here is another chance for the enterpris-
ing Yankee. tract Of unoccupied land
extending as far as one can see may be
bought for a few dollars and turned into
a fruit farm the virgin soil of unparallel-
ed richness being capable Of producing ev.
cry tropical growth. Shipping facilities
are already established at Baracoa and
several small ports, and II the land touches
the Yumiri or some other river so much
the better for Its owner. Until one has
seen the golden glory Of a pineapple plan
tation he can think Of no more attractive
sight than a sugar-cane field, glistenlng
pale yellow under the torrid sun and bill
lowing in the gentle breeze like a wind
swept sea. But even more fascinating is
NHH