Evening star., 1898-10-27
CoCOANUTS IN CUBA
beiicious Flavor of the Min. Drn,u
where the Nut Grows.

From the Providence Journal
Next TO bananas the most important
product or eastern Cuba is cocoanuts rrba
trees grow rapidly, without cultivation ana
every mans field is fringed with them
frulters buy the nuts at the rate of ss the
thousand, and they are hulled on the is
land, ground in primitive mills and pressed
Tor OIL Or, correctly speaking we sbouId
put II in the past tense and saw this uas
done up TO a few weeks ago Now every
industry, however simple is paralvzed
spanish soldiers, almost as hungry as the
starving people, occupy every village and
ated land. '
Inc Cuban process of extracting oil from
the coeoanut resembles that by which Tex-
ans make oil from cottonseed. The cake of
solld residue is fed to the pies-ahout tba
only hNe stock ever successfully raised i'm
eastern Cuba-and the shells are used for
luel In the sugar factories So far the oil
mas peeen locally employed only as a lu-
creator Tor sugar-making machinerv-a
wicked waste of valuable material II seems
TO those who are familiar with the splen-
dld possibilities of the product
mere IS an unequaled opening for the
manufacturer CT palm-o-- soap, cocoa her
mats, mats, ETC., to say nothing of the
hufdfed other uses to which parts of
1ne Tree. Its fruit and Loers may be put
Inc saying goes that q cocoa tree bears q
nut Tor every day in the year. In time of
peace one might buy a dozen nuts for "a
-O-cent coin anywhere in the rural districts
oI Supa and he who has never tasted the
mix from one freshly gathered can have
no idea what is meant by "a draught Al for
the gods" In their proper state. however
the nuts are not brown and hard as YOU
see them i'll northern markets: they look
ike enormous pale-gTeen apples, slightly
elongated, for each still wears its Robin
HOOD jacket, which is removed befora
Shipment. Being still ''alive," as they saw
ffS ball
cut with the machete. or long-bladed knife
which every countryman carries or your
own pocket knIle may answer the purpose
Make a hole in one end of the nut about
the size of half dollar, and out gushes
the milk like a living spring, not bv anv
means such sour stuff as you have seen
come out or cocoanuts at nome, white as
chalk ana thick as buttermik
Give one of those imported things to a
monkey plning in captivity for its native
iood and he will refuse it with scorn and
indignation.
The trouble is that the cocoanuts Of
commerce are gathered before they are ripe
and entirely spoiled in transit The fuid
smut up within it should have no sugges-
ton OF milk, but be colorless as water with
a slight sparkle like that from some clear
mountain spring, except for a slightly
sweet and most delicious flavor: and IL
treshly picked In the early morning, after
the nut has beeen swinging all night in the
cool breeZes, the liquid is almost ice cold
Where cocoanuts grow you never see in
sloe OF their smells any of that hard. white
layer which northerners CRATE and desiccate
Zone might as wen say desecrate) for in
Its best estate the nut has no such sub
stance, only a creamy white film inside of
1t, hardly thicker than your thumb nail
which Is scraped Off with a spoon when
eaten. Before drinking the juice the ten
derfoot generally pours II out into another
vessel than that which Nature intended.
but the sophisticated epcure tits the CO.
coanut at just the right angle to let the
milk trickle gently uown his throat-and
ike the old topper We have heard Of he
WlsheS his throat were q mile long
There is nothing in the wide world more
nourishing or fattening. more health -restor-
ing and youth-preserN -ng. Emaciated in
valids are recommended to begin on the
juice of half dozen nuts a day, the dose
TO be increased according to the patients
inclination. And Ine invalid is yet to be
discovered who does not develop a taste
for IT so rapidly tlat in a weeks time half
dozen nuts at a single sitting will hardly
satisfy him. Each Iull-grown nut contains
nearly a pint Of this true fountain OF
youth'-the same perhaps, which the old
Conquistadores sought vainly far and wide
expecting to find II gushing out of the
earth in some sequestered spot, instead OF
hanging, green and beautiful, everywhere
overhead.
on stem, away up near the top OF the tall
tree, just unuer its crown OF plumelike
leaves. A native darky, young or old
thinks nothing of shining up the smooth
branchless trunks, which look like tele-
graph poles, towering straight and slender
from fifty to one hundred feet-whacking
off the nuts with his machete Carried up
the ease and agility of his ancestors, the
rnonkeVS