COOK AND COLLINS—ECONOMIC PLANTS OF PORTO RICO. 121 
the manufacture of cordage, bags, brooms, brushes, nets, matting, and other 
coarse fabrics, and for numerous minor purposes. In some parts of India unripe 
cocoanuts are used for this purpose, the fiber being finer and more flexible than 
that of the mature nuts. For the extraction of the fiber the husks are split open 
upon a sharp stake or crowbar and then soaked in tanks or pits dug in the banks 
of tidal rivers. The labor of beating out the fibers from the rotted husks is 
considerable, and the people of Porto Rico could hardly have competed in this 
with the Hindoos, particularly since the latter have all the experience, but suc- 
cessful machinery has been invented and is now coming into general use, so that 
when power plants have been established in Porto Rico the possibilities of the 
extraction of coir will be worthy of further investigation. Very little coir is 
imported into the United States in the unmanufactured condition, so that plans 
for any extensive trade must have reference to the European market. 
The other important cocoanut export of India and the South Sea Islands is 
copra, the dried meat of the nut. It is imported into Europe and America for 
the sake of the cocoanut oil, which is extracted from it to the amount of 30 to 60 
per cent of its weight, depending upon quality and the degree of dryness. The 
Treasury reports for 1899 show importations of: 
Copra_____. __.----------------------------- 2,071,087 pounds, valued at $109,421 
Cocoanut oil. __.--- 2. ---------------- 21,794,633 pounds, valued at $1,084,710 
Something over another million dollars was paid for cocoanuts in the shell and 
in other forms. 
Cocoanut oil is used extensively for food, in the Far East as a substitute for 
butter. lard, or olive oil, and is also burned for illumination. In Europe and the 
United States it is employed mostly in the manufacture of candles and soaps, 
but in the latter form it has the disadvantage of having a disagreeable smell. At 
cool temperatures, 40° to 60°, it becomes solid, but in the Tropics it remains fluid. 
The ‘cake.’ left after the oil has been extracted, is used quite after the manner 
of cottonseed. Copra is used much more extensively in Europe than in this 
country, but recent statistics are not available. The trade is, however, known to 
have suffered in recent years from the competition of the African palm oil—secured 
from Elacis guineensis, which is superior to cocoanut oil for the purpose of soap 
making—and has probably been further affected by our cottonseed oil. 
As a minor local use of the cocoanut, may be mentioned the employment of the 
roots as one of the ingredients of the numerons refreshing drinks so popular in 
Porto Rico. 
Grosourdy (2: 495) states that the wood is used in the same manner as that of 
the royal palin, and some parts are more highly prized, being harder, handsomer, 
and more suitable for fine work: specific gravity 0.501 and 0.865. 
Cocotero. See Cocos nucifera. 
This is the name for the cocoanut tree, but it is little used, both the tree and the 
nut being commonly called coco. 
Coco wood. See Inga vera. 
Coffea arabica. Corrner. Cark. 
Coffee is the most important product of Porto Rico, and its culture is too exten- 
sive a subject to be more than touched on here. The question of shade has been 
made the subject of a special publication. (See Bulletin No, 25, Division of 
Botany, United States Department of Agriculture. ) 
The mnost careless and wasteful methods are practiced in the culture of this 
important crop. No attention is paid to the selection of seedlings, most of the 
new plants being secured from seeds that have germinated under the trees in the 
old plantations. It is estimated that by proper methods of cultivation the yield 
from the land now devoted to coffee could be doubled or tripled. 
