COCONUT PLANTER'S MANUAL. 11 



United Kingdom (40 per cent). The local price varies between 25 and 

 50 cents per lb. 



In the manufacture of arrack it has been found that a tree 

 produces from 6 to 12 drams of toddy per diy, the fermented 

 product containing from 4 to 8 per cent alcohol. 



The cost price of toddy may be put at 30 cents, per gallon : it is 

 retailed in taverns at from two to four times this value. In native 

 stills 7 gallons of toddy give 1 oz. of arrack. The distillers' cost of 

 production is Rs. 250 to Rs. 350 per leaguer of 150 gallons. The 

 retail price of arrack is Rs. 10 to Rs. 16 per gallon. In 1921 th e 

 consumption of arrack in the colony was about 850,000 gallons and 

 of toddy about 4,500,000 gallons. 



Coir fibre, both "bristle "and "mattress," is both hand and 

 machine extracted. A good deal is used locally, but in 1922 the totaj 

 quantity of fibre exported as such or in the form of yarn and rope 

 was valued at over 3 j million rupees, the United Kingdom, Belgium, 

 C4ermany and Japan being the chief importers. While the price of 

 bristle fibre is in the neighbourhood of Rs 1 per cwt., that of mattress 

 fibre is about a fifth of that value. 



SCIENTIFIC DATA. 



THE STEM. 



The stem of the coconut, except ou rare occasions, is an un- 

 branched cylindrical column, which sometimes reaches a height of from 

 80 to 1 00 feet, with a diameter sometimes three feet or even less at the 

 base. It is thus very clear that the stem needs great strength and 

 elasticity to enable it to bear the weight of the crown of leaves and 

 bunches of fruit it carries at the apex, and stand the force of. strong 

 winds which are so common on the seashore where the palm is usually 

 found. 



In monocotyledons, like the coconut, the cambium cells do not 

 form a ring between the wood and the bark as we find it in rubber, 

 since the fibro- vascular bundles never coalesce, but are irregularly 

 scattered through the cellular system of the stem. They are generally 

 crowded towards the circumference, which consequently becomes 

 much harder than the centre, especially in woody monocotyledons 



