62 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



great injury to the fiber. Coir is extremely resistant to salt 

 water. For this purpose it has been much used for ship 

 cables. It is also extensively used for ropes, mattresses, cush- 

 ions, door mats, coarse hall matting, nose bags for horses, 

 bags for oil presses, yarn for weaving into finer matting, 

 brushes, etc. The coconut waste obtained in cleaning the coir 

 fiber is used as bedding for animals, as packing material for 

 nursery stock, as insulating material for cold storage, and 

 for other purposes. Coir fiber brings from 2j4 to 6 cents a 

 pound. 



By incising or bruising the flower spadix about 3 or 4 months 

 after the spathe appears and before it has opened, a consider- 

 able quantity of toddy is secured containing 14 per cent, of 

 sugar. This sweet juice may easily be fermented into arack, 

 or vinegar, or may be condensed by boiling into jaggery or 

 raw sugar. 



Of the territory belonging to the United States, the Philip- 

 pines are most active in the production of coconuts. In the 

 Philippine Islands, there are at present about 30,ooo,cxx3 ma- 

 ture coconut trees and 20,000,000 young trees. Interest in 

 the coconut industry in the Philippines is active and further 

 planting is going on quite rapidly. About 175,000 tons of 

 copra annually, or one-fourth of the world's output of copra, is 

 produced in the Philippines. In southern Florida coconuts 

 are being planted by the thousand. Little interest, however, 

 has thus far been taken in them as a commercial crop. For 

 the most part they are considered merely as ornamentals. 

 They come into bearing early, however, in Florida, and the 

 time is coming when the product of these trees will be of 

 sufficient importance to attract the attention of coconut buyers. 



The coconut is one of the hardiest and longest-lived crops 

 in the whole list of agricultural products. After the trees have 

 become mature they require little or no attention except for 

 the occasional application of fertilizer. On account of the 

 profits which have been obtained from coconut plantations in 



