Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1899-01-20
COCOANUTs In CUBA.
THEY GROW RAPIDLY AND ENTIRELY
WITHOUT CULTIVATION.

Delicious Flavor OF the Milk Drunk
Where the Nut Grows-Aitogethcr Diff
ferent From Those That Come North
Excellent For Invalids.
Next to bananas the most important
product of eastern Cuba is cocoanuts.
The trees grow rapidly, without culti-
walton. and every mans field is fripged
with them.
The Cuban process OF extracting oil
from the cocoanut resembles that by
which Texans make oil from cotton
seed. The cake of 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 lubricator
for sugar-malxing machinery-a wicked
waste OF valuable material, 1t seems to
those who are familiar with the splen-
did possibilities OF the product.
The saying goes that cocoanut tree
bears nut for every day in the year.
In time Of peace one might buy dozen
nuts for a 20-cent coin anywhere 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 re-
moved before shipment. Being still
alive" as they say on the island, its
shell is soft and easily cut with the
machete, or long-bladed knife, which
every countryman carries, or your own
pocket knife may answer the purpose.
Make 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 the cocoanuts at home
white as chalk and thick as butter
milk.
The trouble is that the cocoanuts OF
commerce are gathered before they are
ripe and entirely spoiled in transit.
The fluid shut up within it should have
no suggestion of milk, but be colorless
as water, with a slight sparkle like that
from some clear mountain spring, ex-
cept for a slightly sweet and most
delicious flavor; and if freshly picked
in the early morning, after the nut has
been swinging all night in the cool
breezes, the liquid is almost ice cold
Where cocoanuts grow you never see
inside of their shells any of that hard.
white layer which northeners CRATE and
desiccate Zone might as we'll say desc
pr0fQl for m &c cfofo
no such substance, only a creamy white
film inside of 1t, hardly thicker than
your thumb nail. which is scraped off
with spoon when eaten. Before drink
Ing the juice the tenderfoot generally
pours it out into another vessel than
that which Nature intended; but the
sophisticated epicure tits the cocoanut
at just the right angle to let the milk
trickle gently down his throat-and.
like the older topper we have heard of.
he wishes his throat were a mile long.
There is nothing in the wide world
more nourishing or fattening, moro
health-restoring and youth-preserving.
Bmaciated invalids are recommended
to begin on the juice of half a dozen
nuts day, the dose to be increased ac-
cording to the patients inclination.
And the invalid is yet to be discovered
who does not develop a taste for it SO
rapidly that in a weeks time half a
dozen nuts at single sitting will hard
ly satisfy him. Each full-grown nut
contains nearly a pint OF this true
fountain OF youth"-the same, per-
haps, which the old Conquistadores
sought vainly far and wide, expecting
to find 1t gushing out of the earth in
some sequestered spot instead Of hang
Ing, green and beautiful. everywhere
overhead.