IS added to that of the copra, the world's coconut production may 

 reasonably be estimated at perhaps £50,000,000 per annum. 



Whilst the world's population continues to increase, and whilst 

 communities continue to advance towards what we have termed 

 a "higher plane of living,"' the demand for and consumption of 

 the coconut in the form of edible and industrial fats, fibers, yarns, 

 and the many other articles, must continue to increase. There 

 can be no limitation — the coconut is a necessity and not a luxury. 



IMPORTANCE OF COCONUT.S. 



Perhaps the most important of many almost equally important 

 products of the tropics is the coconut, the foundation and sup- 

 port of a score of great industries. 



Though the consumption of coconuts has for many years been 

 very large — and it must be noted that they form the principal 

 food of the native populations of many of the countries in which 

 they are grown — it has remained for recent scientific research to 

 demonstrate the value of their products in the food and manu- 

 factures of civilized communities, and to show in what manner 

 they may be utilized. 



A mere enumeration of some of the principal of these uses and 

 the manufactures which they support is sufficient to show how 

 largely coconut properties enter into the every day life of the 

 community. 



Coconut butter (margarine), lard, desiccated coconut (bis- 

 cuits, confections, cakes, sweets), cooking and burning oil, soap, 

 candles, mats, matting, ropes, yarns, mattresses, cattle-food-cake, 

 stuffing for furniture, imitation horsehair, brooms, brushes, etc. 



J 



SHORTAGE OF ANIMAL FATS. 



Food must necessarily rank first in any list of articles, and 

 among foods fat is one of the essentials for support of the 

 human system. Hitherto the demand for this has been met by 

 animal fats, the chief supply of which has been imported from 

 foreign countries — the United States, etc. Of late years, how- 

 ever, a shortage in this supply has been manifested. This short- 

 age is due not only to a diminution in the number of animals, but 

 also to the fact that the countries hitherto exporting a surplus of 

 their animal fats have so largely increased in population that 

 they need all they can raise for their own consumption. The 

 consequence is a serious shortage in this essential food, which is 

 increasing and must continue to increase. 



This deficiency in animal fat is filled by coconut butter, pure, 

 scientifically prepared and free from all contamination, which we 

 know under the name of margarine. How great a blessing mar- 



