294 OTJE COMMON TBTJITS. 



Indians from time immemorial for matting, cordage, &c., 

 has of late years been thus employed in England also, 

 and is now in great demand ; indeed, in 1862 our imports 

 amounted to no less than 3.138,346 Cocoa Nuts, valued 

 at 21,716. Wherever it may grow, every part of the 

 tree is turned to some account, and a favourite subject 

 with the Cinghalese when conversing with a stranger is 

 to enumerate the hundred uses to which, as they say, 

 this inestimable tree is applied. It is thus, as a whole, 

 so valuable that it has been remarked that a man who 

 drops one of these nuts into the ground in a land where 

 they will grow, confers a greater and more certain benefit 

 upon himself and upon posterity than does many a life- 

 long toil in less genial climes ; while another writer asserts 

 that he who has in his garden 12 Cocoas and two jack- 

 trees, need make no further exertion, but is provided for 

 for the rest of his days. If, however, not content with this 

 modest competence, any enterprising individual should 

 wish to adventure something more largely in nut-grow- 

 ing, Professor Simmonds, in his Commercial Products of 

 the Vegetable Kingdom, calculates that an outlay of 960 

 in forming a plantation would secure a net income of at 

 least 1,200 per annum for at least 50 years. Whether 

 the prospect of such profits might not make it worth 

 while to establish a Limited Liability Cocoa Nut Plant- 

 ing Company, is left as a nut for speculators to crack. 



DALZIEL BEOTHEES, CAMDEH PEESS. 



