COCONUT 



COCONUT 



811 



larvae of moths and butterflies, insects of other groups, 

 and fungi. Damage is also done in places by crus- 

 taceans, and by rats and other higher animals. Forests 

 made up of one kind of tree practically do not exist in 

 nature in the tropics; and when such forests are made, 

 as has been done with the coconut, the prevention of 

 devastation by pests will be accomplished only by 

 greater care than is ordinarily demanded to protect 

 the crops of temperate lands. 



Varieties. 



A very large number of varieties of coconuts is 

 known in different parts of the tropics, but a careful 

 comparative study of their merits has never been made 

 on a large scale and with nuts from many different 

 sources. The best experiment began less than a decade 

 ago in Madagascar. In several localities in the Philip- 

 pines, there are strains of very large nuts, of which, as a 

 plantation average extending over years, 3,300 produce 

 a ton of copra. In favorable seasons the production 

 has been at the rate of a ton from 2,800 nuts. There are 

 reports of similar large nuts from other countries, but 

 no data as to their yield on a plantation scale. In the 

 parts of the Philippines having the greatest coconut 

 industry, it requires 5,600 to 6,000 nuts to produce a 

 ton of copra, and the same figures apply to Ceylon and 

 various other coconut countries. In still other places 

 the nuts are so small that 7,000 are required to the ton. 

 There are varieties characterized by shape and by 

 color, but these characteristics seem not to be related 

 to the yield either of copra or oil. The nuts of the 

 Laccadive and Maldive Islands are reputed to produce 

 a particularly good fiber. Throughout the eastern 

 tropics, coconuts are locally used to produce liquor. 

 For this purpose, early maturing varieties that are 

 likely also to produce very small nuts, but numerous 

 clusters, are selected. There are varieties in Ceylon 

 and the Philippines which bear at the age of four years, 

 while the varieties in extensive cultivation and used for 

 the production of copra can none of them be relied 

 upon to produce a crop in less than seven years and not 

 in less than ten years unless properly treated. A Philip- 

 pine variety known as Makapun6 has the interior of the 

 nuts completely filled with a soft, sweet tissue, used as 

 a table delicacy. Such nuts sell locally for about 10 

 cents, while the ordinary nut is worth 2 or 3 cents. 



Uses and products of the coconut. 



The local uses of the coconut are almost unlimited. 

 Besides being of practical utility in a very large num- 

 ber of ways to the people of the Malay-Polynesian 

 region, it has, as a result of its practical importance, 

 acquired a prominent place in the rites and supersti- 

 tions of the people of this part of the world. Thus 

 Murray tells of a tribe of Papuans, among whom it is 

 not proper for a man to eat a person whom he has 

 killed, this privilege being reserved for his associates; 

 but a man may eat the heart of his own victim if he 

 sits on one coconut and balances himself with his feet 

 on two others while he prepares and devours it. 



The products of great industrial importance are 

 toddy and its derivatives, coir, and copra and its 

 products. 



Toddy is an usual English name of the fresh bever- 

 age obtained from the unopen flower-clusters. In 

 the Philippines it is known as "tuba." The mode of 

 securing it differs somewhat in the three countries in 

 which it is secured on an industrial scale, the Philip- 

 pines, Java and Ceylon. In all of them, the spathe is 

 bent down gradually and the tip is then cut off. A 

 thin slice is afterward cut off with a sharp knife, usually 

 twice a day. After a few days of this treatment, the 

 irritation results in a flow of sap from the cut surface. 

 This sap falls into a jar or bamboo tube from which it 

 is collected, as a rule twice a day, and a very thin slice 

 is removed from the end at each time of collection. 



52 



This continues until the whole inflorescence has been 

 removed by the series of slices. The amount of toddy 

 collected depends on the vigor of the tree, on the 

 weather, and on the skill of the workman. Under 

 fairly favorable conditions, a good workman will secure 

 a quart or more a day from one inflorescence. The 

 technique of this business seems to be better developed 

 in the Philippines than elsewhere, with the result that 

 more toddy is secured in a given time from the tree. 

 The toddy is used as a fresh beverage or as a source of 

 alcohol, or less frequently of sugar, or still more rarely 

 of vinegar; it is also a common source of yeast in the 

 East Indies. The toddy, as it falls from the cut branch, 

 contains about 16 per cent of sucrose. This inverts 

 very rapidly if permitted to do so, and the invert 

 sugar is in turn rapidly fermented to alcohol. In parts 

 of the Philippines, the production of strong liquor in 

 this way is a business of some importance. If sugar is to 

 be produced, care is taken to keep the vessels clean and 

 approximately sterile, and the inversion is often pre- 

 vented by the use of tanbark from one of the man- 

 groves, usually Bruguiera. If alcohol is the product 

 desired, the same bamboo tubes are used over and over 

 without cleaning. In the Philippines it is common 

 practice to connect the trees used for this purpose 

 with bridges of bam- 

 boo on which the col- 

 rectors pass rapidly 

 from tree to tree. In 

 other countries each 

 tree is climbed by 

 itself. 



(Nat. size at this stage.) (Nat. size.) 



1012. Stages in the growth of a coconut. 



Coir is produced for local use in many parts of the 

 world, but as an article of commerce comes chiefly 

 from Ceylon. This fiber was the old staple cordage 

 material of the Polynesian region. As a fiber material, 

 it is conspicuous for its elasticity, being able to stretch 

 20 or 25 per cent without exceeding the limit of elas- 

 ticity. It is also remarkable for lightness, for resist- 

 ance to decay, and for the short length of the individual 

 cells. It is accordingly a valuable fiber for use in ropes 

 subject to abrupt strains, for calking boats, and for a 

 stuffing fiber. Its' stiffness and durability make it 

 especially serviceable for the manufacture of mats, 

 and this is its chief commercial use. 



Copra. The principal coconut product exported 

 from most producing regions is copra, which is the dried 

 meat or hard endosperm of the fruit. To produce the 

 best copra, nuts should be thoroughly and uniformly 

 ripe, and this condition is best guaranteed by per- 

 mitting them to ripen on the trees until they fall, and 

 then to collect and use them at frequent intervals. 

 However, it is far more common practice to harvest 

 them before they fall, going through the groves at 

 regular intervals. This is most commonly done every 

 three months. The nuts are cut down in various ways. 

 The simplest method is the use of a long pole made of 

 detachable joints of bamboo and bearing at the top a 

 sharp and recurved knife. A nut-gatherer then goes 

 from tree to tree and cuts down the nuts that are 

 ready, without leaving the ground. This method is 

 the local one used in certain parts of the Philippines. 



