cocos 



NUCIPBRA 



Cocoanut 



Jaggery. 



Desiccated 

 Cocoanut. 



Porcupine- 

 wood. 



Hukah-bovils. 

 Carved Vases. 



Violin. 

 Cocoanut PearL 



Matting. 



Trade. 



Fibre. 



Exports, Raw 

 Coir. 



Manufactured 

 Coir. 



THE COCOANUT PALM 



takes a fine polish. This is especially noticeable in Madras. [See Cements, 

 pp. 293, 929.] The word jaggery is the trade name in India for all crude unre- 

 fined sugar, though mostly palm sugar. It comes from the Sanskrit sarkard 

 (sugar) through the Konkani sakkara, the Malayal chakkara and the Portu- 

 guese jagara or xagara. [For Indian Palm Sugar, see Phoenix, pp. 886, 929.] 



The uses of desiccated and shredded cocoanut in European cookery 

 and confectionery, etc., are well known, and need not be particularised. 

 This trade is comparatively a modern one, and mightbe almost characterised 

 as the chief aspect of European interest in the edible products of the palm. 

 Many patent machines and processes have been brought out, and large 

 factories organised in Europe and America (none in India) for the produc- 

 tion and sale of desiccated cocoanut and the manufactures therefrom. 

 It would appear that the growth of this special trade is so important that 

 it is curtailing the export of cocoanuts (entire fruits) from America. 



Timber. The wood is commercially known as " Porcupine- wood," and 

 is used for rafters and for other building purposes. It makes very pretty 

 and durable furniture, and is also converted into spear-handles, walking- 

 sticks and other fancy articles. [Cf. Gamble, Man. Ind. Timbs., 1902, 739.] 



Domestic and Sacred Uses. By Hindus the dried shell is almost universally 

 used as the water-bowl of their smoking-pipe or hukah (hence the name narghili) ; 

 less frequently it is the sounding-drum of crude violins. In Madras the shells are 

 made into elegantly carved ornamental vases, lamps, spoons, sugar-pots, teapots, 

 and small unripe ones into snuff-boxes, scent-bottles and the like. Entire shells are 

 obtained by filling them with salt water and burying them in sand. By this process 

 the kernel is destroyed and may be washed out, but the shell will rot quickly unless 

 the nut so treated be fully ripe. [Cf. Ind. Art at Delhi, 1903, 133, 169, 196, etc. ; 

 53.oey,Monog.TradeandManuf.N.Ind., 1880, 116.] According to the Emperor Baber 

 ( Memoirs (Ley Aen and Erskine, transl. ), 327)and the Emperor Akbar (Ain-i-Akbari, 

 1590 (Blochmann, transl.), i., 71) the shell of the cocoanut was even then used to 

 make a kind of violin or mandoline called ghichak. Within the nut there is occasion- 

 ally found a small stoneof a bluish-white colour called in India calappa and regarded 

 by the Chinese as a valuable amulet. These " cocoanut pearls " are very carefully 

 described by Rumphius. They appear to be composed almost entirely of 

 calcium carbonate and have a very small proportion of organic matter. The 

 leaves of the palm are serviceable for thatch, screens, baskets, matwork, etc. 



TRADE IN COCOANUT PRODUCTS. No sort of estimate can be 

 furnished of the area under this palm or of the total production. The 

 trade returns are moreover scattered under several separate headings, so 

 that a fairly complete statement of even the exports cannot be framed. 

 It will be convenient, therefore, to take up the more important products 

 of the palm separately : 



Coir. Fibre, Eope and Manufactures therefrom. In trade statistics 

 the exports are shown under the headings " unmanufactured coir," " manu- 

 factured coir " (exclusive of rope), and " cordage and rope " (including 

 hemp and coir but excluding jute). The EXPORTS OF RA W COIR to foreign 

 countries manifested a steady increase from 1894 to 1900. In the latter 

 year they stood at 70,016 cwt., valued at Rs. 5,65,625. But since 1900 

 they have greatly fallen off, having been only 25,500 cwt., valued at Rs. 

 2,26,626, in 1903-4, and 11,317 cwt., valued at Rs. 1,06,634, in 1906-7. 

 This circumstance may be due to increased traffic in manufactured coir 

 (rope matting, etc.), to increased exports in made-up mats or rugs (not 

 returned as coir at all), or to certain rearrangements in official statistics. 



Of the MANUFACTURED COIR (excluding cordage and rope) the exports 

 manifest a satisfactory improvement, the traffic for 1903-4 having been 

 returned at 483,355 cwt., valued at Rs. 47,90,110, and for 1906-7 at 559,329 



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