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quartered and dried in ovens or on cement terraces as shown in the 
photograph I took at a coconut plantation visited in the Malay 
States. Copra-drying should be done immediately after the opening 
of the nuts, and should be finished in 24 hours. The result of ex- 
periments in New Guinea show that 4,500 nuts give a ton of copra, 
and freshly cut kernels give 63 per cent. of dry copra, 
worth £24 a ton, and a steady demand exists for it. The extracted 
oil is largely used for soap making, lubrification, for culinary pur- 
poses, and of recent years a refined vegetable butter is manufactured 
at oil mills in the South of France, and largely exported to Russia 
and Northern climates, where it remains hard and congealed without 
trouble. It is claimed to be superior to lard or butter for culinary 
purposes, baking, or confectionary, and much cheaper. 
If grown, as explained, in Kimberley, along marshy flats and 
moist, salt, sandy, places close to the sea, it is improbable that the 
tree would be seriously attacked by white ants. 
Tue Date Paum (Phoenix dactylifera). 
As its name implies, the Date belongs to the Palm family, to 
which also belong the coconut and other palms. Unlike these, it 
throws, when young, offshoots or suckers (“djebars,” in Arabic) at 
the base of its stem. Later on, when the tree is in full bearing, it 
ceases to throw suckers. The stem of the tree grows from a terminal 
bud, and remains of the same diameter all through its existence. The 
leaves, which are feather-shaped, measure 10 to 15 feet in length, 
and are persistent. The tree is dioeceous, its staminate (male) and 
pistillate (female) flowers appearing on separate individuals. If 
grown from seed, about half the number of resulting palms are 
male, and about half female. In cultivation, however, this number 
is considerably reduced, and the staminate trees are cut off and a 
small proportion only allowed to grow, viz., about one in 50. As it 
is important that the male flowers and the female trees should blos- 
som at the same time, it is advisable to leave at the start a surplus 
of male trees which can subsequently be weeded out. With the help 
of artificial pollination this number may even be reduced. For that 
purpose a piece of male flower is tied to the female inflorescence 
of the pistillate tree at blossoming time. To provide pollen for fer- 
tilising early blossoming female trees the Arabs always keep a few 
bunches of male flowers from the previous year. These are placed 
in tight paper bags or in glass jars covered with calico, as cock- 
roaches would otherwise devour the pollen. These packages are kept 
in a cool place. The pollen is said to keep without deterioration for 
two years. The reproduction of the date palm by seeds is not much 
favoured, and often results in worthless trees; and it is preferable to 
effect the multiplication of the good varieties by means of suckers. 
These transmit the sexes and the characteristies of the parent plants. 
