The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-12-09
vH: OF NATURES
 MANY WONDERS Tho Cocoanut Tree Conspicuous Among Marvels of
 the Age. FOOD, DRINK AND SHELTER Things of Utility and Luxury For All the Wide
 World.


 tree" said man familiar with tree, it's fruit and manufactured products Its native home is India, from which originally it's seed was carried by ocean currents to islands of the sea and to more or less distant mainlands, whence by yet other currents or per- haps by the hands of man it was car ried on still further until the cocoanut tree had come to be found, as it is now, in tropical and sub-tropical climes all around the globe.
 The cocoanut thrives best in lands along the margin of the sea; it likes the salt water. Plant a cocoanut back of a fence or stonewall and it will grow up straight until it has come to the height of the fence, but above that 1t will incline toward the water If it { is planted further inland they put q block of salt under it,
 The seed is the eocoanut itself, which, as you know, is encased as it grows on the tree in an elongated fibre filled husk with a hard, smooth outer surface Cocoanuts dropping from the V away first spread the tree over the earth.
 Having found suitable Judgment the nut sends up out of one of the three eyes to be found in one end of it-Tthe eyes familiar to us as we commonly see the cocoanut in it's spherical form I Invested of its outer husk through one of these eyes 1t sends up a sprout which works it's way through and out of the husk. this being the start of the young cocoatnut tree. As the young ire grows the husk disintegrates and rots away.
 "Cocoanut trees attain height of from twenty to eighty feet, according to situation and circumstances. The tree begins to hear fruit at about eight Iyears of age, it's life Is about 120 years; It's yield in bearing about hundred nuts annually, and an interesting fact lis that the nuts drop from the tree at night.
 lin many places in which the fruit is found the tree, with it's fruit, is in dispensable to the well-being and it may be to the existence of the native human dwellers The outer bark of the tree supplies material which may be used for the purpose of clothing; the solder part of the trunk may be used for the. framing and the trees leaves for the covering of shelters, while the trees frp;t supplies food and the flores of the husk material for fish, ing lines.
 "In many places where the cocoanut tree thrives fish and cocoanuts form the only food supplies of the natives, and in distant isolated salt waves, sur rounded islands or eays, the cocoanut may be their only source of supply ot fresh water. The cocoanut tree is prac- tically hollow inside, and through this lporous interior, almost as freely as 1t could be pumped up through a pump log, 1t draws up water for it's own sustenance and growth, and from which it fills with distilled water the fruit on the tree, for the milk so-called in the cocoanut is practically drinking water, with very little other matter And so in some places the cocoanut supplies all the fresh water obtainable as it may as we'll the food-surely a wonderful and benefcent tree.
 Coming back now to the general subject, we find that the manufactur- ed products of this wonderful tree are now ln common use throughout the civilized world To bring it right close it may be that when you go home to- night you will wipe the mud off your shoes on a doormat made of cocoa fibre, and if you should take a nap before dinner you will lie down, it may be. on a lounge whose stutfing contains more or less of the same ma terial.
 "The oil with which you dress your salad may be cocoanut oil, and for dessert you may have cocoanut pie, In the Kitchen you might find scrubbing brushes made of cocoanut fibre, and likewise brooms. The uses of the cocoa nut are various,
 For many years, in fact since way back; cocoanuts have been imported in some numbers and they were to be found for sale in grocery stores and elsewhere, as they still are and chil- dren used to buy them and take them l nome anu DOTG G IlOlG 1iiS eyes and pour the milk out into tea cup and drink that, and then get fath- CT to break the cocoanut with hatch et and then they'd eat the meat, as children still do
 "The number of the coeoanuts inn ported fer such and other retail de- naands is considerable, but still it isn't drop in the bucket to the number now imported fer manufacturing uses Millions of coeoanuts are imported to this country annually, some of these from wild or natural growth trees, ant some from planted and cultivated ] trees; for the cocoanut is now culti' yated; and it might be mentioned 1T | passing that a. cocoanut plantation i' called a eoeoanut walk.
 "Of this enormous importation o | cocoanuts by far the greater propor ; ton goes to manufacturers, and tn greater share of this to the manufac