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holds that do not use the nuts in some form or other, and in spite 

 of the vast number of trees, the supply does not seem to equal the 

 demand. 



Before the shell of the nut becomes thick and hard and while the 

 meat is soft and about the consistency of clabber, many of the nuts 

 are gathered and sold upon the street corners and in the drink 

 shops. The nuts are cut open with a machete. The milk proves 

 a most refreshing drink, while the meat is eaten with a spoon or, 

 more often, with a sliver cut from the shell. No attempt is made 

 to husk the nuts so used, though frequent!}' a portion of the husk 

 is trimmed off to lessen weight for transportation. 



The hard-shelled or ripe nuts have various uses. When of good 

 quality, they are sold at retail. Many kind of sweet-meats are 

 also made from them, while the milk and the meat, variously pre- 

 pared, are constituent parts of many articles of daily diet, such as 

 fish stews, beans, rice, corn, etc. The ripe nuts are always sent to 

 market husked. They are brought to Bahia by small sailboats, 

 which ply up and down the coast, and on account of the demand 

 are sold at comparatively high prices. The price paid for them at 

 the plantations ranges from 9 to 14 milreis ($2.18 to 83.36) per 

 hundred (without respect to size,) according to seasons, the whole- 

 sale price in Bahia City being a couple of milreis higher per hun- 

 dred. The retail price is from 120 to 320 reis (2.88 to 7.61 cents) 

 per nut, according to size and season. 



There is such a demand for good nuts at Rio de Janeiro and 

 other points south that it is far more profitable to ship the nuts 

 there than to utilize them in the manufacture of copra ; and even if 

 the prices at local markets were not so good, there would, never- 

 theless, be no nuts for foreign export. 



It is only the nuts that have been left too long on the trees that 

 are utilized in the manufacture of by-products. From these nuts 

 the oil is crudely extracted by grinding the meat, submitting it to 

 pressure and purifying the resulting liquid, or by grinding and 

 boiling the meat, and skimming the oil. This oil is used for 

 machinery, lamps, cooking, soap-making, etc. It is also used by 

 the resident Africans for hair oil and for anointing the body. It 

 sells at wholesale at the place of manufacture at from 800 to 1,200 

 reis (19.2 to 28.8 dollars cents) per litre. 



There is still a great amount of uncultivated land well suited 

 for coco-nut plantations. Few trees are being planted, yet it 

 requires no labour other than that of putting a mature nut into the 

 ground prior to the rainy season, and that after live or six years 

 the trees will bear almost indefinitely. 



Coco-nuts in Colombia. 



The consul at Cartagena, Colombia, \va^ placed at a disadvantage 

 in gathering data for his report on account of the revolution in that 

 country. Under ordinary conditions, writes the Consul, raising 

 of coco-nuts is an interest of considerable magnitude, and a fair 

 amount of attention is bestowed upon the groves and the collection, 

 husking,' sorting, and packing of the nuts. It may be said that, 



