The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-01-21
SOMETHING ABOUT cocoANUTs
Many of Them in Our New Island
Possessions-How They
Are Used.


"There are three stages of different
conditions through, which the milk OF
the cocoanut passes, in each Of which
1t is excellent" said Capt. Nathan True
love, sometime master OF trading
craft in the South Pacific islands. He
had paused at fruiterer's stand and
was examining pile of cocoanuts in the
husk displayed there with an air OF in
terest. "The first is when the meat and
milk in the green cocoanut have not yet
separated and are blended together in u
semifuid pulp, about Of the consist
ency of water ice, and may be scooped
out and eaten with spoon. The sec
ond Is when the meat is newly hardened
against the inside of the shell and the
hollow within is filled with the FRA
grant, cooling milk, one OF the most
beautiful and refreshing draughts that
a man can find in the tropical lands.
The third stage, to which few people
outside the tropics are initiated, Is
when the cocoanut is sprouting and the
embryo palm tree, formed from the
milk. and the best of the meat lies In
the hollow that is left, kernel within
a kernel, so to speak, and one OF the
daintiest morsels that a man ever Eft
ed to his mouth. was in hopes to find
a sprouting cocoanut among these, but
there is none. Here is where the green
sprouts are to be looked form the
monkeys face, as the boys say-the
three round depressions which they
call a mouth and eyes in the small end
of the nut.
what we call milk in the cocoanut
the South sea people call water. Cocoa
nut milk with them is the kernel grated
fine and mixed with this fluid. The re-
sulting compound is OF the consistency
of cream, milk-white in color and de-
licious to the taste. 1t is SO rich that
one can eat but little of it directly, and
it is principally used, mixed with other
substances, in preparing dessert dishes
and as a frosting for cake. In the
Mirosenian and other tropical Pacific
island groups the cocoa palm grows
everywhere that enough earth can be
found above the coral reefs to give its
roots hold, and is the most all-round
useful tree there is. It's nuts serve the
natives for food and drink and are a
chief resource for barter.
"The juice drawn from the undevel-
oped flowers of the cocoa palm just be-
fore their budding is sweet and pleas
ant to the taste, and is often given to
sickly or weaving children. When al
lowed to ferment it becomes 'toddy.'
the favorite tipple of South Sea island
ers, and by distillation the fermented
juice yields potent liquor resembling
the East India arrack and known by
the same name. Boiled down and sug-
CARED the palm juice makes the deli
cious juggeree which the Javanase
bumboatmen bring out to sell to the
passengers and sailors of ships that put
in at Batavia and other parts of Java.
The wood Of the cocoa palm, CONNER
cially known as porcupine wood, IS
valuable in the making of furniture and
house trimmings, and from the husks
of the nuts are made the coir rope
which serves as rigging for native craft,
and is worked into mats and baskets.
ut is in the production of copra that
the cocoa palm has its chief commercial
value. Copra is the meat of the cocoa
nut dried for export, to be used in the
making of oil. In earlier times the
South Sea natives grated the cocoanut
meat and expressed the oil themselves
| in a rude lever press, to barter with
cruising traders for tobacco. liquor and
trinkets. Now the meat is cut by them
into pieces of such size and shape as
will enable them to pack it to the best
advantage and is mostly sent to regular
| ports of shipment, where its owners re-
eeive pay in goods or money. The copra
is shipped to Europe or America to fac
tories where the oil is expressed to be
applied to variety of uses, Cocoa
stearin is much used in candle making
and the oil enters largely into the ma
rine soap which can be used for toile,
and laundry purposes in sea water
When it is considered that 1900 nuts
will make 500 pounds Of copra, which
will yield 25 gallons of oil, one of the
vast commercial possibilities Of oul
new Philippine possessions becomes
evident."-N. Y. Sun.