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If you grind the nut, steep the meal in hot water, 

 and then mix it with an equal quantity of bran, 

 both hogs and poultry will eat it. Both horses and 

 cows will eat the nut itself, mixed with other food. 



The Sago tree is between 20 and 30 feet high, and 

 about 5 orb round. It grows in the Molucca islands. 

 Its outward bark is about an inch thick ; under this 

 are ligneous fibres, which cover a mass of a kind of 

 gummy meal. When this is ripe, a whitish dust 

 transpires through the leaves. The Malais then cut 

 clown the tree, scoop out the mealy substance, dilute 

 it with water, and strain it through a fine cloth. It 

 afterwards gradually dries and hardens, and will keep 

 good for many years. 



Palm trees are male and female. In March or 

 April when the sheaths that inclose the young clus- 

 ters of the flowers and fruit begin to open (at whish 

 time the dates are formed) they take a sprig of the 

 male cluster, and insert it into the sheath of the fe- 

 male, or else take a whole cluster of the male tree, 

 ami sprinkle the farina of it over several clusters of 

 the female. Where they use the former method,- on 

 male suffices to impregnate 4 or 5 JO females. 



The palm tree is in its greatest vigour about 30 

 years after transplantation, and for 70 years longer 

 bears yearly, 15 or 20 clusters of dates, each of 15 

 or 20 pounds weight. Afterward they gradually pine 

 away r ad usually fall about the latter end of their 

 second century. 



To procure the honey of the palm tree, they 

 off its head, and scoop the top of the trunk into the 

 shape of a bason. The sap ascending lodges in this 

 cavity, for the first ten or twelve days, throe quarts 

 or a gallon a day. Then it gradually diminishes, till 

 iu six or eight weeks the juices are consumed, and 

 the tree is fit only for firewood. This liquor is a 

 thin syrup, of a more luscious sweetness than honey. 

 Hence our poet mentions, 



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