FOREWORD ix 



demand for coconuts viz., nut-butter is known 

 only to a comparative few. Perhaps one in fifty 

 has heard of it, and only one in a hundred has tried 

 it. Yet, although it may appear to be looking 

 very far ahead, nevertheless, many shrewd, dis- 

 interested persons have expressed the opinion, for 

 which there is good foundation on medical, sani- 

 tary, and economic grounds, that it is only a 

 question of time before butter made from vegetable 

 fat will entirely supersede the butter made from 

 animal fat. 



The area available for coconut cultivation is 

 limited owing to the peculiar qualities of soil and 

 environment required for its successful cultivation, 

 so that over-production, the bugbear of most 

 industries, is practically impossible. 



As the Times points out in an exhaustive article 

 dealing with the industry : 



" Altogether the coconut is one of the most 

 valuable of Nature's legacies. It is the fact, too, 

 that there has so far been little increase of the area 

 under coconut cultivation. Assuredly each year 

 brings an increased number of nuts to the world's 

 markets, but such increase does not represent the 

 crops of new plantations, but rather increased crops 

 from old estates it is due to the circumstance that 

 trees, hitherto only in partial bearing, have now 

 come into full crop wherefore there would appear 

 to be small fear of over-production for many years 



