THE COCOANUT. 99 



consumed, should be undertaken." Mr. Monaghau does not give any particulars 

 of the method of its manufacture, and careful inquiry by this Division leaves the 

 impression that the particular method is a secret of the Mannheim manufacturer. 

 The discovery was made by a German chemist named Schlunk, of Ludwigshafen, 

 near Mannheim. Liebig and Presenius had before discovered the value of the 

 cocoauut oil or fat, but did not succeed in its production as a substitute for 

 butter. Shortly after the discovery of the new article called cocoanut butter a 

 firm was established for its manufacture, which, the consul says, sunk a large 

 amount of capital. However, in the summer of 1889, when the company had been 

 established but a year, he says the demand was in excess of the supply. Twenty- 

 five workmen were employed by the firm, at wages ranging from 25 to 75 cents 

 per day. These workmen, with the aid of a 40-horsepower engine, produced about 

 6,600 pounds of butter per day, that retailed at about 13 to 15J cents per pound. 

 The nuts are obtained especially from the South Sea Islands and Coral Islands, 

 Arabia, and the coast countries of Africa and South America. The butter is of a 

 clear, whitish color, so rich in fat that of water and foreign substances combined 

 there are but .0068. It is better adapted for cooking than for table use. At present 

 it is chiefly used in hospitals, but it is rapidly finding its way to the tables of 

 the poor, particularly as a substitute for oleomargarin. It is, of course, free from 

 germs of tuberculosis, which is said to afflict fully 10 per cent of the milch cows 

 in Germany. 



ENEMIES OP THE COCOANUT PALM. 



The cocoanut palm is said to be especially liable to injury from lightning, 

 due, no doubt, to its lofty growth in warm latitudes. A lightning stroke kills the 

 terminal bud, and death to the tree ensues. Probably the most annoying pest 

 among cocoanut walks is the black rat of those sections, which delights to build 

 its nests in the fruiting trees. In sections where these rats abound they destroy 

 thousands of the tender young nuts and have become one of the most serious 

 troubles of the cocoanut planter. The most satisfactory protection against these, 

 thus far reported, consists in incasing the trunks of the trees with broad sheets 

 of galvanized iron, taking care to run the sheet-iron casing so high that the rats 

 can not possibly jump to the body of the tree above. All intermediate or pendent 

 growth likely to serve as ladders for the rats to go up must be removed. When 

 the guards are in place to prevent the rats from climbing the trees, search is 

 made throughout the tree-tops to drive out any that may be hidden among the 

 branches. Sandwiches of bread and phosphoric paste deposited among the leaf- 

 stalks, and in proximity to the nuts have been found efficient help. 



INSECTS OF THE COCOANUT PALM. 



An insect called Black Beetle preys upon the terminal leaf bud, from the 

 injury of which the tree often dies. United States consul Otto E. Keimer, at 

 Santiago de Cuba, writing to the Department of State, under date of December 6, 

 1889, says: "Small shipments of cocoanuts are leaving this port almost continuously 

 for the United States, and there is probability that some of these cocoanuts are 

 used as seed. I have, therefore, with much interest watched the scientific obser- 

 vations made at Havana, Baracoa, and here, with the object of discovering the 

 origin of the mysterious disease which is killing many cocoanut palms, and which 

 at one time threatened to almost annihilate all the plantations producing cocoatmts 

 for market and export. Opinions of scientists have differed as regards the cause 

 and nature of the disease, Professor Ramos, of Havana, ascribing it to a fungous 

 growth on the base of the leaves, which growth penetrates the crown of the tree, 

 withering and killing it. This theory is proved to be incorrect, and it is now 

 definitely ascertained that the destroyer of the cocoanut tree is an insect of diiniu- 



