THE COCOANUT PALM. 



239 



Sir Charles Dilke states that 200,000 acres of Ceylon land are 

 shaded by cocoa palms, yielding from 700,000,000 to 800,000,000 

 nuts a year, worth 2,000,000Z. sterling. This value is equal to 

 2Z. 10s. a thousand, which is higher than one expects to find the 

 nut is worth in the East. At 21 feet distance apart, an acre 

 holds 98^ trees, and at an annual yield of forty nuts per tree 

 (all ages), 200,000 acres would yield 788,000,000 nuts— being about 

 the crop-quantity cited. The numbers hold together, but the dis- 

 tance apart is too near. Healthy trees are, in the West Indies, 

 held to average 100 nuts annually, and extraordinary ones more than 

 double that number. If one island can yield so great a quantity, 

 what possibilities are in store for such a widely -spread tree, nowhere 

 else yet grown in any such extraordinary amount, but for which 

 immense areas peculiarly suited to it, await its enriching groves. 

 Trinidad has as yet only about 3000 acres in cocoanuts, if as much. 



Cocoanuts exported from Ceylon : 



Year. 



Number, 



Value. 



1866 

 1867 

 1868 

 1869 



1870 



i 



2,055,453 

 4,568,871 

 1,738,199 

 1,584,011 

 / 5,478,677 \ 

 \ and 623 bags j 



£ 



6,468 

 13,646 

 5,256 

 5,063 



17,185 



The production of nuts in the island seems to vary greatly. In 

 1866, 128,660,280 nuts were collected, besides others not enumerated, 

 but valued at nearly 26,000Z. In 1866, 115,435,370 was the number 

 reported, and others to the value of 26,000Z. In 1868, only 30,672,624 

 and 28,000/. worth were returned. 



Copperah or cocoanut kernels exported from Ceylon : 



Year. 



Quantity. 



Value. 





cwts. 



£ 



1866 



55,569 



33,032 



1867 



23,302 



13,981 



1868 



5,338 



3,203 



1869 



17,649 



10,589 



1870 



40,638 



31,678 



So far back as 1857, the value of the products of the cocoanut 

 shipped from Ceylon, exclusive of those used in the island, was 

 274,462Z., thus made up : 





Quantity. 



Value. 





420,857 No. 



£ 



3,717 





18,881 cwts. 



13,984 





31,652 „ 



21,364 



Copperah or dried pulp . . 



20,381 „ 



12,143 



Oil 



1,767,431 galls. 



223,254 



