March 2, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



i*i 



NUCIFKRAl. 



COCONUTS (OOCUS 



l'ROJI A PAPEK BY J. II. WEIGHT. 



Mr. President, Members of tlie Bayonne (Florida) Scientific 

 Circle and Visiting Friends: 



Having the heior of reading to this association another 

 paper upon "Tropical Fruits," I have selected as a subject 

 tor our evening's talk "The Coconut Palm of the Tropics," 

 a tree so sensitive to the slightest frost that it will not 

 mature with any degree of certainty north of the 27th 

 degree of latitude, and bearing a fruit with a shell so hard, 

 that it would lead one to suppose it was easily cared for 

 and required but little attention, On the contrary, it is 

 one of the most delicate fruits the northern merchant has 

 to handle, for when removed from its outer husk, it will 

 crack when allowed to fall but a few feet, or when exposed 

 to the sun, wind or frost, will split open, letting the air 

 to the meat, causing rapid decay. 



The true anil original home of the coconut is India 

 and the South Sea Islands, but distributed by the aid of 

 man. as well as being cast upon foreign shores by the 

 ocean waves, where they have taken root and flourished, 

 it has become a prominent feature in almost every tropical 

 land on the face of the globe 



The coconut coming into our northern markets simply 

 as a luxury, its real value to the human race is but little 

 understood. Its forms almost the entire sustenance of 

 many uncivilized races of the tropics, who use every portion 

 of the tree aud nut. From the tree they build their rude 

 huts, with the leaves thatch their houses, from the meat 

 obtain their food aud oil. from the husk make their 

 garments, also twist from the fibre their ropes, cordage. 

 &c. From its juices they distil liquors and make their 

 medicine, and carve from the shells not only their house- 

 hold utensils but all manner of ornamental trinkets, the 

 shell being susceptible of a very high polish. Even the 

 leaves were used by the ancient Buddhists to write their 

 manuscript on. 



A gentleman relating his experience among the South 

 Sea Islands, said of the inhabitants that they had fewer 

 wants, fewer natural resources, and fewer ties of relation- 

 ship to the rest of the world than any other human 

 beings, having no necessities that cannot be supplied from 

 a single source — the '-coconut tree" — which gives him his 

 food, drink, oil and shelter, his scanty dress, canoe, sails, 

 nets and cordage implements and utensils of various sorts. 

 His native land— nothing but a narrow strip of coral sand 

 swept together by the waves into a coral reef — all consists 

 of a single material, the carbonate of lime. He knows 

 no ground higher than his sandy beach, having never seen 

 a mountain or a river, and living entirely without fresh 

 water, except that which he obtains from the coconut, 

 his coconut diet being varied only by an occasional fish 

 or bird. He can make his fire by friction, but has little 

 use for it, for in the absence of material fur his dinner, 

 a good nap in the sand on the beach furnishes a refreshing 

 substitute. He has no tillable ground and no agriculture, 

 and little occupation other than fishing, bathing and gather- 

 ing coconuts. He has but little knowledge of any other 

 people than the two or three huudred of his own kin I. with 

 whom he has grown up. A language of a few hundred 

 words has sufficient capacity for his needs of expression. 

 He has no neighbours, no foreign intercourse, no trade or 

 traffic. He is surrounded by sea aud sky, aud knows 

 nothing beyond his own horizon. 



PRODUCTION IN FLORIDA. 



The question is often asked — Will coconuts grow in 

 any portion of the United States? In reply I would say 

 that such a small portion of our country is either tropic 

 or semi-tropic that coconut raising in the United States 

 will never command much attention, although for many 

 years coconuts have grown in southern Florida, but owing 

 to an extreme fondness for the green nut, manifested by 

 those engaged in the sponge, fishery along the coast, but 

 few nuts have been allowed to ripen, only sufficient to 

 demostrate the fact that coconuts can be raised for several 

 hundred miles along the coast, where (lie Gulf Stream 

 (that great distributor of tropical warmth 1. flows so close 

 to its shore. The coconut industry in that vicinity has 

 received a fresh impetus of late, 

 ern capitalists have go.ie to Florida 

 industry, seeing (.like Col. Sellers). 



90 



for several nortli- 

 uid embarked in this 

 millions in it.'' Last 



season over one hundred thousand nuts were planted in 

 one district of a thousand aeres. aud it is expected that 

 number will be largely increased the coining scasjn, ;<> 

 that in a few years we may see in our own northern 

 marked '* Florida coconuts," thus developing a new in- 

 dustry for the South that may add one more to the many 

 yet undeveloped resources that industry, energy and capital 

 will bring to light in that portion of our country so favor- 

 ed with perpetual spring. 



PLANTlNli AND CULTIVATION. 



In the tropics, where the coconut is wanted for plant- 

 ing, the nuts are picked up from the ground as they 

 fall from the tree, where they have hung for about four- 

 teen mouths in ripening ; and it is a fact not generally 

 known or noted that a majority of the nuts drop at night, 

 which probably accounts for the small loss of life by 

 coconuts falling upon the heads of the native*. One rea- 

 son given for singular freak of nature is that the action 

 of the heavy dews at night, so noticeable in the tropics, 

 loosens the seal nature has provided it with, and allows 

 it to fall. Such nuts as are wanted for planting are cither 

 gathered into heaps or placed un ler sheds, where they 

 are allowed to remain until the sprout-shows itself through 

 the busk. The principal reason assigned for selecting this 

 mode of allowing the nut to sprout before planting is that 

 good, healthy sprout nuts may be selected, thus avoiding 

 the possibility of planting "blind" nuts that would not 

 sprout, in which case much time would be lost in starl- 

 ing the "Coconut Walks" (as their orchards are called'. 

 When planted in this manner much care is excercised in 

 selecting and handling the sprouted nuts, to see that 

 nothing but stroug, healthy nuts be planted, also to see 

 that the sprouts are intact, for by plauting a weak, un- 

 healthy nut, or one whose sprouts are injured by rough 

 handling, a tree of poor growth and late bearing grows. 

 When planted in regular order holes are dug about three 

 feet deep aud from fifteen to thirty feet apart; in the hole 

 the nut is placed with care, covering it with about one 

 foot of sod, continuing to fill the hole as the sprout, 

 grows, until its reaches the surface, when it is left to 

 its.lt. requiting no further attention. Should the place 

 where the coconut is planted be any great distance from 

 the seashore a qumtity of salt is placed in the hole, and 

 sometimes scraps of old iron, as, it being strictly a salt 

 water-loving tree, it will thrive but a short distance from 

 the shore; nearness to salt water being absolutely essenti- 

 al to its welfare. As an interesting evidence of the above, 

 I will cite an instance of a tree that was planted behind 

 a boar i fence some distance from the sea. Mr. Goodwin, 

 of the firm of (iiolwiu & Sturges, of New York, import- 

 ers of West India fruits, related to me his experience in 

 watching the growth of this 4rce in his yard in Brazil. 

 The tree grew perfectly straight until it reached the top of 

 the fence when it began to lean or grow toward the ocean a 

 foot or more, when a shed was built quite near the fence. 

 several feet higher, and the tree assumed an upward tend- 

 ency anil grew straight until the roof of the shed was 

 reached, wheu it again reached out toward the sea, form- 

 ing a very curious and odd-looking tree, which he wholly 

 attributed to the influence of the salt air. In fact no mag- 

 net is truer to the pole than is the root of the coconut 

 tree to the ocean, for when the root breaks through its 

 husk it points direct toward the sea, no matter in what 

 position the nut is placed in the ground. Horing its way 

 downward it fastens itself so deep and firmly in the ground 

 that no tornado, no matter how severe, has ever been known 

 to wrench it from its moorings, but. the hurricane, so fre- 

 quent in the tropics, will often twist the trunks in two 

 and carry the broken portions a long distance, thus euding 

 the coconut palm, as it will not sprout a second time. 

 Cou'd you examine a coconut when in the process 

 sprouting you would find directly beneath the sprouting eye 

 a small white mushroom-shaped kernel, and in this, little 

 germ lies the life, of the future tree. Shut up in its prison- 

 like shell— and the shell, surrounded by many inches thick 

 of tough and tangled fibre, how is it to work its way out 

 and perform the duty assigned it ? for it is apparently as 

 soft ami tender as a baby's hand. Soon its tiny fingers 

 begin boring their way out of the weakest eye, then, 

 rending the tough, woody fibre right andleft.it forces its 

 tiny fingers to the surface aud commences the campaign 

 of life, sending its shoots upward to form the tree an I 



