CHAPTER VI 



COCO-NUT PRODUCTS 



Toddy. — If you cut or break the skin and continue 

 to irritate the spot, there will be produced a sore from 

 which a fluid which is not blood will be excreted. This 

 flow of fluid is not due to pressure from the inside, but 

 is excreted by the activity of the sore itself. The same 

 treatment will produce a similar result from a mass of 

 active vegetable tissue, and this fact is taken advantage 

 of to secure a flow of juice from various palms. The 

 juice obtained in this way from the palms is always 

 rich in cane sugar (sucrose), and may therefore be used 

 as a beverage, or for the manufacture of an alcoholic 

 beverage, or of sugar, or of vinegar. Where palm saps 

 are the base of any considerable commerce, they are 

 usually obtained from the Palmyra or Nipa palm or 

 from a species of Phoenix, rather than from the 

 coco-nut, which furnishes other products which are 

 better adapted to taking a place on the world's markets. 



The general practice in producing a palm wine from 

 the coco-nut is to use for the purpose such coco-nuts as 

 are already at hand ; these are usually trees which have 

 been planted for the production of nuts. It has already 

 been pointed out, in the discussion of varieties, that the 

 dwarf varieties which come into bearing after about 

 four years, which ought never to be planted for copra 

 production, have great and evident advantages as 

 sources of toddy, and should always be planted when 

 this is expected to be the chief source of revenue. 



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