548 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



It has been estimated by Dr. Gibbs and his 

 assistants that an area of from 750 to 1,000 

 hectares of nipa trees would be sufficient to 

 keep a 5OOton sugar mill running for 1 80 days. 



In addition to the sugar industry, there is 

 also the production of alcohol, which can be 

 made from the sap of the nipa tree in quantities 

 sufficient to supply the entire China coast, 

 besides what is needed for local consumption. 

 Last year over 9,000,000 litres of alcohol were 

 made from 90,000,000 litres of sap, and this 

 is merely a small fraction of what might be 

 done. 



In addition to taking sap from the nipa trees 

 for alcohol, coco-nut tree sap is largely used, 

 and the scientists have flemonstrated that the 

 production of the coco-nut trees may be in- 

 creased by over T 1 2 per cent, by intelligent 

 handling. 



Experiments made with regard to the yield 

 of sap from 100 coco- nut trees for a period of 

 thirty-one days, with two collections per day, 

 showed that the average daily production of 

 sap per tree was approximately 1*4 litres each. 



Whilst this is extremely interesting to hear 

 of, we would say that such large withdrawals 

 of sap must tell heavily upon the palms, and 

 by reducing their vigour decrease both the 

 size and quantity of the nuts. In fact, such 

 trees would, we feel, be useless for copra- 

 production at least, when being systematically 

 tapped as described. All the same we include 



