812 



COCONUT 



COCOS 



Elsewhere in the Philippines and in many other places, 

 the practice is to climb each tree, using notches cut at 

 convenient heights for this purpose. If these notches 

 are cut with sufficient care, it probably can be done 

 without real damage to the tree, but in practice such 

 care is not usually taken, and the notches are very 

 often centers from which decay of the trunk begins. 

 In other places the nut-gatherers climb the trees with- 

 out notches. To do this easily, they usually bind their 

 ankles together with a thong, or pass a rope around the 

 hips and around the tree, or use both of these devices. 

 The old story of the harvesting of coconuts by the use 

 of monkeys is not altogether a myth. In the Sunda 

 islands and in Sarawak, monkeys are sometimes 

 trained for this purpose; and from Sarawak, these 

 trained monkeys are occasionally exported to the 

 Straits settlements. In some of the islands of the 

 south seas, the entire nuts, husk and all, are split into 

 halves with an axe, and in Ceylon a machine for this 

 purpose has come into limited use. Elsewhere, the 

 first step in the preparation of copra is the removal of 

 the husks. This is usually done with the aid of a piece 

 of iron, three cornered and moderately sharp, mounted 

 on an erect stick and standing at about the height of 

 the knee. This implement is in universal use in the 

 Philippines, and elsewhere in the East, and has of late 

 years come into use in the tropics of the New World. 

 A machine to remove the husks has also been invented', 

 but the most that is claimed for it is that a workman 

 can husk a thousand nuts a day, and this is only the 

 standard day's work for a nut-husker in the Philip- 

 pines by the old method. After the removal of the 

 husk, the nut is split into two halves by a sharp blow 

 with a heavy knife. The water is allowed to run out on 

 the ground. Methods of drying copra fall under three 

 heads: sun-drying, grill-drying, and kiln-drying. Cen- 

 trifugal dryers have also been tried and are said to 

 give good results. Sun-drying is the oldest method, and 

 is a good one where the climate is such that the drying 

 can be trusted to go on without interruption. Under 

 favorable conditions it produces the finest grade of 

 copra, Cochin sun-dried being the standard of excel- 

 lence. Most Philippine copra is grill-dried. A hole is 

 dug in the ground on which is placed a grating usually 

 made of bamboo, and the whole protected by a roof. 

 Coconut husks and shells are used for fuel. The heat 

 and smoke rise directly from the fire to the coconuts. 

 Sun-drying takes usually five to nine days; if more than 

 this is required, the method is unsafe. Smoke-drying 

 is finished as a rule in a single day or in parts of two 

 days. Smoke-dried copra is unsuited for the manu- 

 facture of food products and accordingly sells at a 

 lower price than the best copra. It is a good way of 

 making poor copra; for if any copra is imperfectly 

 dried or is even in part the product of unripe nuts, it 

 ferments with a considerable loss of oil, and this fer- 

 mentation is decidedly checked by smoking. Kilns 

 for drying coconuts are of various patterns in different 

 countries, and if properly handled always produce a 

 high grade of copra. There is one kiln in the Philip- 

 pines which handles more than three tons of copra at 

 a charge, and dries it in six or eight hours. By all 

 methods, it is customary to make two stages of the 

 drying, one immediately after the nuts are opened, and 

 the other after the meat has shrunk enough to be easily 

 removed from the shells. The ultimate use of copra is 

 the manufacture of oil, an industry which has been 

 developed to the greatest extent in France. In all 

 coconut countries there is a local business in manufac- 

 turing oil. This is done by various primitive methods, 

 some of which produce a food or toilet product of the 

 highest possible quality. In the manufacture of such 

 oil, the utmost care is taken and the product is of 

 purely local use. Oil for wider distribution is manu- 

 factured with less care, by methods characteristic of 

 the different countries. To prepare oil for world com- 



merce, such establishments as have long been used 

 in European countries, and to a less extent in the 

 United States, have more recently been founded in the 

 producing lands. The oil has a variety of uses. It was 

 formerly consumed almost entirely in the manufacture 

 of soap and candles. Principally during the last decade, 

 methods of refining and separation have been developed, 

 by which excellent butter-substitutes are made. As 

 the butter produced in this way is palatable and most 

 digestible, and is cheaper than real butter, these prod- 

 ucts have found a ready sale, with the result that there 

 has been a great increase in the demand for good 

 grades of copra and a consequent improvement in the 

 general quality produced in most countries, and an 

 increase in the price of all grades. It seems probable 

 that the market will for some time continue to increase 

 more rapidly than the supply. 



Other products. A well-known product is desic- 

 cated coconut. Among producing countries, Ceylon is 

 the only one which has taken up the manufacture of this 

 article. It is prepared directly from the fresh meat of 

 ripe nuts. Very large numbers of coconuts are also 

 put upon the market of temperate countries as "coco- 

 nuts," usually after the removal of the husk. The 

 United States is the chief market for these nuts and the 

 export of them is accordingly a conspicuous feature of 

 the business in lands situated where delivery in the 

 United States is economically possible, that is in the 

 West Indies and to a much less extent in the islands of 

 the Pacific. An exportation of this kind is also assum- 

 ing large proportions with Australia as a market. For 

 all kinds of coconut produce, Ceylon long held first 

 place and the business of producing coconuts, copra 

 and oil, as well as coir, and desiccated coconut, has 

 reached a better development in Ceylon than anywhere 

 else. However, during the last few years, the Philip- 

 pines have far outstripped Ceylon in the production of 

 copra. The export from the Philippines in the year 

 ending June 30, 1912, was more than 160,000 tons. In 

 this year, copra was for the first time the foremost 

 export of the islands, taking from abaca the place 

 which it has held almost without interruption for the 

 last fifty years. E. B. COPELAND. 



COCOS (Portuguese, monkey, from the nut, which 

 suggests a monkey's face). Palmacese. This genus 

 includes the coconut tree, C. nucifera, and a few pinnate 

 palms cultivated for ornament in the North under glass, 

 and in southern Florida and southern California as 

 avenue -and ornamental trees. See page 3567. 



Low or tall palms, with slender or robust ringed 

 spineless trunks, often clothed with the bases of the Ivs. : 

 Ivs. terminal, pinnatisect; segms. ensiform or lanceo- 

 late, equidistant or in groups, 1- to many-nerved, entire 

 at the apex, or with 1 lateral tooth, or more or less 

 deeply lobed, the margins smooth, recurved at the 

 base; rachis 3-sided, acute above, convex on the back; 

 petiole concave above, smooth or spiny on the margins; 

 sheath short, open, fibrous: spadices erect, at length 

 drooping, the branches erect or drooping; spathes 2, the 

 lower one the shorter, split at the apex, the upper one 

 fusiform or clavate, woody, furrowed on the back; 

 bracts variable; fls. white or yellow: fr. large or 

 medium, ovoid or ellipsoidal, terete or obtusely 3-angled, 

 often fibrous-coated as in the coconut. Species 56 in 

 Trop. and Subtrop. S. Amer., 1 in the tropics around the 

 world. The genus is allied to Maximiliana and Attalea, 

 and distinguished by its male fls. having lanceolate 

 petals, 6 included stamens, and a 1-seeded fr. G.C. II. 

 23:439. 



The coconut is the example most commonly cited of 

 dispersal of seeds by water. Its buoyant, impervious 

 husk is said to enable it to cross an ocean without 

 losing its germinating power. Its structure is interest- 

 ing and at first puzzling. Although it is a dry, indehis- 

 cent, one-seeded fruit, it seems very unlike an achene, as 



