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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUR I V 



[March 2, 1885 



The coconut, furnishing so many useful ingredients, is 

 by no means the only valuable portion of the nut, for the 

 outer covering, or fibre, is becoming world-wide in its re- 

 putation for furnishing an excellent substitute for horse- 

 hair when curled and dyed black, and is largely used in 

 upholstering chairs, sofa-i. mattresses, ka. The fibre when 

 thus prepared is called '■ coir," and is brought from India 

 where it is prepared and packed in large hales for ship- 

 ping. There are several factories in New York where this 

 fibre is used in the mmufacture of door-mats. In the 

 South Sea Islands the "coir" is highly prized for making 

 cordage or ropes. The time selected for gathering the 

 nuts from which the fibre, or " coir," is to be obtained, is 

 in the tenth month, as the fruit must not be allowed to 

 hang until thoroughly ripe, or the fibre becomes coarse and 

 more difficult to twist, and must remain longer in the 

 souking pits. The pits in which the nuts are placed a • 

 year to soak lefore the fibre can be properly separated, 

 are in many instances nothing but large holes dug in the 

 ground, then filled with nuts and salt water, on which ' 

 stones are placed to keep them under and from floating 

 away. After a ye ir's soaking the fibre is easily extracted 

 by beating and rubbing between the hands; the manufacture : 

 of cordag • is done almost exclusively by women. From 

 three good large coast nuts a pound of " coir " can be , 

 obtained, while it requires ten inland nuts to produce the ; 

 same amount. In the South Sea Islands, where the " coir" 

 roping is used most extensively, they claim for its sup'-r- 

 iority over hemp rope, its ability to stand a greater strain, 1 

 owing to its elasticity, which has been proven iu several 

 instances where ships furnished with " coir" cables have 

 been known to ride out a storm in security, while the 

 stronger but less elastic hempen ropes of other vessels 

 snapped like pipe stems. Another advantage claimed for 

 "coir" roping is its lightness and ability to float and not 

 become water-soiked ; but owing to the roughness of the 

 rope it lias met with but little favor in our eastern waters. 

 Experimental tests at the office of the Marine Board in 

 Calcutta resulted in a coir rope of 1.' inches circumference 

 stretching 32 inches, against 9§ inches of the same size 

 rope made of hemp. 



,V curious hat is made from the husk of the sheath of 

 the coconut blossom, which is sometimes used for a fruit 

 bag, and they are often purchased by passengers on steam- 

 ers visiting the tropics, when brought to the vessels by 

 natives filled with different fruits and offered for sale at 

 a very small price. 



Having said so much in favor of the meat and fibre, 

 w.- would do our subject injustice if we failed to speak of 

 some of the uses found for the shell. 



Besides furnishing the native with his household utens- 

 ils, it produces an excellent charcoal when properly burned, 

 but as an article of commerce in our eastern markets it 

 figures mostly as a spice adulterator. 



Tie- millions of coconuts that are annually used in our 

 markets for desiccating purposes necessarily leave an im- 

 mense quantity of broken and apparently useless shell, 

 which have found ready sale when grouud to a fine powder, 

 and is called "spice mixture." This mixture, although 

 costing but a few cents per pound, is highly prized and 

 eagerly sought for by unscrupulous grocers and manufact- 

 urers of spices, who mix it with all kinds of spices in 

 order to undersell their honest neighbour, who is endeavor- 

 ing to <ke out a miserable existence by dealing honestly 

 with the few who fully appreciate fair dealings. Few of 

 us escape taking into our stomachs daily " coconut dust" 

 iu the form of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, pepper, nutmeg, 

 ginger and mace, and I am told it is now ground so as 

 to resemble coffee and is used largely for that_ adulter- 

 atiou, it being odorless and tasteless, and resembling coffee 

 so closely in colour, is with difficulty detected when the 

 two are mixed to gether and both ground to the same 

 consistency. 



A somewhat novel use was found for the coconut during 

 out unhappy civil war. When the Second Virginia Regi- 

 ment was stationed near "Winchester, Va., in the Shenan- 

 doah Valley, mauy of its members having a strong affec- 

 tion for the beverage "applejack," used every means in 

 their power to smuggle some within the lines, but to no 

 avail, the officer in command being a severe disciplinarian 

 — and a strong temperance roan — was constantly on the 



alert, preventing the introduction of what would surely 

 demoralize his army. The keen-eyed sutler, less of a pro- 

 hibitionist than the Colonel, but with an eye to business, 

 went to Richmond, Va., where be obtained a large quant- 

 ity of fresh coconuts, had the eye opened and the milk 

 removed, and in its place substituted whisky, corking up 

 the hole nicely, returned to camp with bis precious 

 load, which found ready sale at one dollar each. In a 

 few hours nearly every soldier was drunk and high carnival 

 prevailed. The Colonel, in a rage, hunted high and low 

 to discover the smuggler that had caused such havoc in 

 his ranks, but without success, never attributing it to the 

 " milk in the coconnt." 



While I have presented some of the different uses found 

 for the coconut, and, perhaps, some facts new to many 

 of you, I shall not endeavor to enumerate the 365 different 

 uses the Chinese claim they found for the nut, but will 

 simply close my paper by summing up a few of the uses 

 found' for the coconnt to which we, as well as the natives, 

 are daily indebted. 



Returiuing home from our daily toil, the first to wel- 

 come us as we step upon our porch is the cocoa mat, 

 made from the husk of coconut, and upon which we are 

 invited to clean our shoes. Entering our home, children 

 search our pockets for bon bon prepared from the coco- 

 nut by the confectioner to undermiue their constitutions. 

 Ascending to our chamber to prepare for dinner, we find 

 for dressing our hair a bottle of " Cocoaine," made from 

 coconut oil, and admitted to be an excellent preparation 

 for the hair. On going to our washstand we clean our 

 hands with the most delicate of all soaps, that made from 

 coconut oil, and if our hands are chapped we find in the 

 stand drawer a ready relief in the form of coconut butter, 

 made by the druggist and highly prized for its healing 

 qualities. Thus prepared for our dinner, we descend to 

 the dining-room, where an inviting dinner awaits us, little 

 dreaming that at every mouthful we are to take into our 

 system the coconut in some form. For the seasoning with 

 which the meat is prepared is in many cases largely com- 

 posed of dust made from ground coconut shi lis. We lift 

 from the caster the pepper bottle, with which to add more 

 seasoning to our food, thus adding more coconut shell to 

 our already over-adulterated dinner. We find for dessert 

 our cook has tempted our appetites with a custard pud- 

 ding, upon the top of which floats a preparation of grated 

 coconut, or she has placed a tempting basket of cake 

 covered with a coating of crystallized coconut, and later 

 they are served with an excellent cup of coffee, which 

 they compliment as the best ever drank ; but if they were 

 to examine the canister from which it was made, the 

 chances are they would find evidences of ground coconut 

 shell. In the kitchen we find the servant scrubbing with 

 a brush composed of coconut busks, having found its way 

 from the other side of the world, a distance of over twelve 

 thousand miles, yet sold to us for the small sum of 25 cents. 

 Returning to the parlour we recline upon the sofa or easy 

 chair and compliment our upholsterer for the soft curled 

 hair with which he has made our furniture so comfortable, 

 little thinking that if we were to examine its interior we 

 might find it to contain more than one-half coconut coir 

 insted of Russia curled hair, for which we had paid him CO 

 cents per pound. 



Vpou retiring we stretch our weary limbs upon a fine 

 mattress and imagine there could be nothing more com- 

 fortable, and we thank the inventor of curled hair ; 3 it, 

 were we to examine the inside of the mattrass, the same 

 conditions would likely prevail as in the furniture. No 

 lack of coconut "coir." So that fiom the moment we 

 step upon our porch at night until we leave our home 

 the next morning the coconut makes itself manifest in 

 some shape or other. 



Having previously mentioned the many uses found for 

 the coconut palm iu the tropics, I think we all can 

 heartily indorse the sentiment of that ancient Poly- 

 nesian, who said, "He who plants a coconut leaves for 

 his children home, raiment and food. " — American Grocer. 



"WELLS' ROUGH ON CORNS." 

 Ask for Wells' "Rough on Corns." Quick relief com- 

 plete, permanent cure. Corns, warts, bunions. W. E. 

 Smith & Co., Madras, Sole Agents, 



