The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-09-24
Observation-Disclosures
ABOUT COCOANUTS
BY
THE MAN ABOUT TOWN

In a short time hey west VIII
have to provide some kind of in
dustries to keep her population
of twelve thousand going until
she develops into a tourist re-
sort, as she eventually will.
We have right here in our back
yard something that can be de-
veloped into a large industry, one
that will provide employment for
hundreds of women, if taken in
hand and developed. l refer to
the cocoanut palm.
1t will be a revelation to many
of our citizens to see what the w.
P. A. workers are doing along this
line at the sewing room, at what
is known as the brick factory.
From the limb of the cocoanut
palm they are being trained in
the art OF making hats, handbags,
carpet slippers, rugs, art squares
and many other ornamental and
useful thing from the leaf of the
cocoanut palm.
The w. P. A. are training our
women in this line of work, and
we will have a sufficient force of
trained workers that could man a
factory for this purpose. When
we manufactured cigars, the to-
bacco had to be imported from
Cuba. The cost OF the material in
this case would be negligible, as
our cocoanut trees need frequent
trimmings, and the material cost
would only amount to what it
would cost to gather it in.
The articles made from the
cocoanut palm are strong and
durable, as well as ornamental
and beautiful. They would meet
a ready sale from the tourists
visiting us every winter, and in
the event more was made than
could be sold here by local deal
ers a ready market could be
found at Miami, st. Petersburg,
Palm Beach or any of Florida's
tourists resorts. A Key West
novelty store in each of the above
named places, could dispose of all
the cocoanut novelties we could
manufacture during the summer
season.
The outlay for a plant to
manufacture the novelties above
referred to would be small, and
in the event local capital cannot
be obtained for this purpose, a
cooperative company could be
formed to start in small way,
and get this industry going.
The tourists visiting US last
season went wild over the hats,
mats and other novelties, and the
few that could be obtained went
like the woods afire. Any one in
terested in getting in on the
ground floor of proposition that
will make him rich, should call at
the women's sewing room, and
see what is going on there. Mrs.
Linton Curry, supervisor of this
project would be glad to show in
terested parties around l am
sure.
We have only touched the limb
of the cocoanut tree in this ar
ticle, later we shall try and tell
you what might be done with the
balance Of the tree. We import
our cocoanut oil, grated cocoa
nut, cocoanut butter, all of which
could be produced right here on
the rock. There is no better
cocoanut candy made in the world,
than right here in Key West by
our old time lady citizens, this
could be sold all over the coun-
try. We have at the present time
ten thousand cocoanut trees grow
ing on the island, and we could
plant a hundred thousand more
here and on the adjacent keys, in
fact there is no limit to the pos
sibilities of the coeoanut indus
try. We shall touch on this sub
ject in a later article. Let's wake
up, an get busy.