The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1918-08-13

Government Scientists Have Found That
the Hull of Cocoanut, Formerly Thrown
Away, Makes Worlds Best Gas Masks.

/ Away, Makes Worlds Best Gas Masks. |
Out of the conditions arising from the
war new industries are constantly coming to
the front. Materials that heretofore were
waste have acquired sudden values and are
eagerly sought. Many of them will retain
their value after the war.
For instance, the cocoanut. Before the
war the United States was a tremendous
consumer of cOcoanut meat and oil. The
! meat from the fresh nuts was "dessicated"
and used in pastry, confectionery and the
like. The oil was used in making soap, prin-
cipally, but in the last few years more large
| ly in the manufacture of the various "but-
| terines" and 'margarines" and the like,
which are now help in cutting down the
grocer's bill, and which are considerably
cheaper than regular creamery butter.
But the shell of the cocoanut was a waste
product 1t is an almost iron hard substance,
and beyond being manufactured occasionally
into dpper bowls had practically no other
value save as fuel
Then use was found for these cocoanut
shells in connection with defense against
poison, gas-it is no military secret, for the
Huns have analysed our gas masks long ago
and know their contents-but the Huns can
not get the materials, for they haven't a
ship on any of the seas They have been
driven from sea-borne commerce
Suddenly, therefore, the cocoanut has be-
come of immense Importance. 1t means life
or death for thousands of our gallant men
at the front, and agents are now securing
all available sources of the West Indies, in
Central and South America and in other
parts of the world to obtain the precious sup
plies of shells, which have a value greater
than those parts of the nut which were the
only ones hitherto with market value.
Factories are being erected near where
the nuts grow, because the nuts are so bulky
If an
OF scarce ship tonnage to ship them whole
They do not 'pack" we'll In bin of nuts
there is almost one-fourth of the space
wasted. Moreover, there is almost a pint of
milk" in each ripe full-sized nut, and this
milk" has no commercial value. That adds
weight to the cargo when several hundred
thousand of them are shipped at once. So,
in the interest of economy and the conser-
Walton of vessel space, the government has
cut off the importation of the whole nuts.
There is also a good deal of unnecessary
moisture in the meat.
So the nuts are thoroughly steamed near
where they grow, cracked and the meat
extracted from the hulls. Formerly in the
tropics the hulls were used for fuel to pro-
duce the steam, and thus it was sort of
perpetual motion industry But the huls are
not used for fuel now. 1t would be almost
like feeding the furnace with dollar bills to
burn those shells up.
The hulls are now carefully preserved and
shipped to the United States. The meats
are dried either by exposure to the sun or
by artificial heat, and when the water has
been all dried out the greasy meats are call
ed "copra."
This is also shipped to the United States,
run through a macerator, put in powerful
hydraulic presses and the oil forced out
The oil is then settled and filtered or clar-
flied, the best grades being used for the
mo foo 1
garnes," in toilet preparations and some
pharmaceutical ways The residue is used
for making soaps and the like The almost
dry cake of fibrous material that was copra
IS now called "poonac" In Denmark and
| Sweden, Norway and Holland it is highly
esteemed as a food for dairy cows. It's milk
! producing and nutritive qualities are about
the same as the cottonseed meal of the south
which is q standard cattle food, and has no
! superior for use in connection with grow
| ing crops.
| Everything about the nut is of value at
present except the milk" and that could
very easily be turned into alcohol, as it fer
ments easily.
Instances of profits of from $50 to $50
per cent. on cocOanut groves have been
made, and the groves bear for a hundred
years, with comparatively no attention. The
crop can be kept for months in fresh con-
dtion with no storage cost, or it can be
! kept for years as cOpra.
Each tree in full bearing is counted upon
to produce an average of 100 ripe nuts per
year. 1t is continuous crop because the
nuts fall as they ripen every few days dur
| ing the year. The trees begin to bear when
four or five years old and are in full bear
ing and strength at 10 years. An acre of
healthy cocoanut trees in full bearing is sup
posed to yield 10000 nuts per annum. At
$45 per thousand, as nuts have been selling,
that is $3.50 per acre, with hardly a cent
for upkeep or for gathering except picking
them up off the ground. The tree has few
enemies, although a blight has manifested
itself the Atlantic side of Panama at
some places.