104 : COCOA-NUT PALM IN LACCADIVES. 
coir which is made there and exported to the Malabar coast. 
The Cocoa-nut tree is almost the sole object of culture and 
the chief means of subsistence, each person consuming about 
four nuts per diem, The principal inhabitants generally 
own considerable numbers of trees, and the custom prevails of 
marking trees with certain house marks, in the same way that 
sheep are marked in other countries. Taxes are levied on these 
trees, according to immemorial usage; and mortgages are 
secured on them at the rate of one rupee per tree of good 
quality. : 
The soil and climate of these islands is so well adapted to 
the Cocoa-nut, that they require to be looked after only for the 
first year; after which they are transplanted, and watered for 
a few weeks, until they take root, when they are left entirely 
to themselves, and come into bearing at periods varying from 
eight to twenty years, and will continue to bear for seventy or 
eighty years. In the island of Kiltan, it is said that a nut 
buried with a knife will grow, requires no attention, and comes 
into bearing early. The tree is not so large and strong as that 
of the coast, and the nut about two thirds of the size only, and 
rounder in shape. The husk is smaller and less woody, and the 
fibre finer and more delicate, but stronger than that of the 
coast nut. The nut is also said to be more compact and oily, 
and to keep better than the coast nut, although, for the sake 
of the coir, the nut is cut before being quite ripe. Many of 
the trees are cut for their sap, called neera, which the islanders 
drink in its unfermented state. The juice is drawn frequently, 
and fermentation checked by the addition of lime or chunam. 
“ They are still so strict in the abstinence from all fermented 
liquors, that the manufacture of toddy would not be tolerated 
in the islands.” (Robinson on ‘ Laccadives,’ 1846.) Of the 
extent of the cultivation, we are informed that in the islands 
under British protection—that is, in Amendeevy, Kadamat, 
Kiltan, and Chetlat, containing in 1844 a total population of 
8609—there were 122,153 Cocoa-nut trees. Of these, 8129 
were chouk or unproductive, 45,070 young trees and plants, and 
69,254 were fully productive. 
Of the abundance of the Cocoa-nut tree on the Malabar 
coast, we may form an idea from the description of the chief 
town, Cannanore ; as the topes or clumps of Cocoa-nut are said 
