Oils and Fats.] 



124 



[February, 1909. 



products dealt with in the foregoing, 

 According to the export returns for 1908, 

 rope, coir yarn and fibre, which are 

 included, were exported to the United 

 Kingdom, Continent of Europe, Aus- 

 tralia, Africa, &c. to the appreciable 

 total of cwts. 305,641. Added to this 

 the exportation of nuts numbering 

 21,188,092, which taken roughly at 

 250 nuts to a cwt. without shells the 

 result will be cwts. 84,755, more or 

 less. In fact, the exportation of the 

 products of the coconut palm in 1908 

 makes a grand total of cwts. 2,378,688, or 

 tons 118,934.— Morning Leader, 27th 

 January, 1909. 



THE COCONUT INDUSTRY OP 

 TRAVANCORE. 



The whole of the picturesque and pros- 

 perous strip of littoral known as the 

 Malabar Coast has the appearance of 

 one vast umbrageous coconut forest. 

 The southern half of this forest lies in 

 the Native State of Travancore. the 

 prosperity of which, admittedly great, 

 depends primarily on its coconut in- 

 dustry. It is difficult to ascertain the 

 exact area under the palm, combined as 

 it is in most portions of the State with 

 various other sorts of cultivation, from 



f)addy on the margin of the lakes and 

 agoons, and jak and plantain in the 

 valleys, to tea and cardamoms and 

 rubber on the magnificent hills and hill 

 slopes. One estimate gives about 2,50,000 

 acres under palms, A fair idea of what 

 the coconut means to Travancore may 

 be formed, however, from the fact that 

 the exports for 1903 were approximately 

 acroreof rupees worth of all kinds of 

 coconut produce, to say nothing of the 

 internal consumption which is itself 

 very great. Further, apart from those 

 actually engaged in palm cultivation, 

 such as land owners, tenants, labour- 

 ers, etc., the coir industry alone in the 

 State supports 133,027 persons accord- 

 ing to the last census. 



Within recent years this important 

 and profitable industry has received 

 a serious check from a cryptic disease* 

 which still remains to be accurately 

 diagnosed, although Dr. Butler, Im- 

 perial Mycologist, who recently visited 

 the State to study the disease, has ex- 

 pressed the opinion that the disease is 

 due to the roots of the palm being 

 rotted by the attacks of a parasitic 

 fungus which appears to be botryodip- 

 lodia. It is a most insidious disease as 

 will be evident from the fact that though 

 one particular locality has been affected 

 for thirty or forty years, serious notice 

 was not taken of the blight until about 



eleven years ago. The extent of the 

 damage already caused may perhaps be 

 gauged, writes Dr. Butler, by the fact 

 that, in spite of the rise in prices in 

 recent years, the trade in coconut pro- 

 duce accounted only for 32 per cent, of 

 the entire State export in 1905-06, against 

 an average for decades past of nearly 

 50 per cent. 



According to the Travancore Adminis- 

 tration Report for 1906-07, just issued, 

 the total volume of the external trade 

 of the State was valued at Rs. 3,21,00,042 

 against Rs. 4,51,75,203 in the previous 

 year, and of this total, the value of the 

 export was Rs, 1,97,56,050, or 61 per cent, 

 as against 63 per cent, in the previous 

 year. It is true that the trade in the 

 produce of the coconut tree embraced, 

 as in the palmy days, nearly one-half of 

 the entire exports and showed a net 

 increase in value of Rs. 4,88,923, but it 

 would be a great mistake to ascribe this 

 upward pull to the rehabilitation of the 

 coconut cultivation and industry. It 

 was actually due to the maintenance of 

 the very high prices which have been 

 ruling some two or three years now for 

 most descriptions of coconut produce. 

 Should prices fall, the compiler of the 

 Travancore Administration Report will 

 find himself singing a less cheerful tune 

 regarding the influence of coconut 

 products on the material prosperity of 

 the State. These coconut products, for 

 which export values are separately 

 given are copra, coconut oil, coir, fibre, 

 and coconuts. Under the first and last 

 of these heads, there was a very appreci- 

 able fall in value, while under coir and 

 fibre the increase was considerable, 

 having been as much as something like 

 Rs. 6 lakhs over the previous year. In 

 the absence of an explanation, I would 

 hazard the one that the increase might 

 only have been due to accumulated 

 stocks of the previous year having been 

 got rid of, and not to any marked 

 increase of production during the year 

 under review. 



Travancore imported in 1906-07 rice 

 and paddy of the value of Rs. 33,88,388, 

 for though rice is the staple food of the 

 people it is grown to a considerably less 

 extent than the necessary local demand. 

 Tobacco was imported to the value of 

 Rs. 26,35,525, and piece-goods, thread 

 and cottou to the aggregate value of 

 Rs. 22,09,530. If in an article on the 

 coconut industry of Travancore, I in- 

 troduce statistics relating to the imports 

 of other articles, it is in order to give 

 point to the following remarks of 

 a former British Resident, and to 

 thereby furnish the reader with an 

 even better idea of all that the coconut 



