106 CULTIVATION OF THE COCOA-NUT TREE. 
little care on their Cocoa-nut gardens. The Cocoa-nut there 
begins to bear at the end of the seventh year, but full crops 
cannot be expected until the ninth year. During this interval 
the utmost average quantity that can be expected will not 
exceed twenty-five nuts annually. But the fruit-bearing power 
of the trees may be considerably improved by extracting toddy 
from the blossom-shoots for the manufacture of jaggery, during 
the first two years of its productiveness ; after which it may be 
discontinued. The subsequent annual produce may be safely 
reckoned at fifty nuts per annum ; and forty may be considered 
the average number obtained from trees that are crowded to 
within fifteen feet of each other. The Cocoa-nuts sell for about 
eleven dollars per thousand.” Mr. Baumgarten also recom- 
mends, that during the first four or five years, Millets, Chillies, 
Kechong (pulse), Sweet Potatoes, Yams, and Pumpkins, be 
cultivated in the intervals of the Cocoa-nut plantation. 
Dr. Buchanan, in his journey across Mysore and down to 
the Malabar coast, in 1800-3, observes that in some places he 
found the green Cocoa-nuts sold for making ropes, at the rate 
of 2000 for about 8d.; but the husk of the ripe Cocoa-nut 
was not fit for the purpose (i, 156). These are commonly burnt 
for fuel (ii, 50). The green husks of the nuts which have 
been cut for their juice are steeped in water for six months, 
They then beat them on a stone with a stick, and rub off with 
their hands the rest of the adhering substance. The fibres, or 
Coir, are then fit to be twisted into yarns. In South Malabar 
(ii, 401), he says, a little bad Coir is made from the husks of 
the nuts.that are used green in the country; a few of the 
nuts are exported with the husk on, but in general they are sent 
to the north inclosed in shell only. 
USES OF THE COCOA-NUT TREE. 
The Cocoa-nut tree is valued not only as applicable to 
many of the same purposes as other Palm trees, but for the 
sap procured by cutting the spathes of the flower-stalks, which 
is either drank in its fresh state, boiled down to a coarse sugar 
or jaggery, or allowed to ferment into spirit and vinegar. 
The milk of the nuts also forms a wholesome drink, while the 
kernel is used as an article of diet or in cookery in its fresh 
