72 



C O CO A Ni'T- GROWING IN FLORIDA. 



A vessel was then fitted out at New York with men, 

 teams, implements and commissary stores, and de- 

 spatched to the scene, when the work of planting 

 began. For three successive years such a cargo o£ seed 

 was brought from the same source, and the planting con- 

 tinued until some 330,000 seed-nuts had been placed 

 in the ground. To show further the extent of the opera- 

 tions, it may be stated that the plantation at the end of 

 that time embraced more than 3,000 acres, and extended 

 in an almost unbroken line for 45 miles along a narrow 

 strip of coast, besides embracing many of the eastern 

 Keys." 



After three years, work was suspended and the owner 

 prepared to await patiently the maturity and fruiting of 

 the trees. Mr. Osborne disclaims having had, even at 

 that time, any definite idea regarding the disposal of the 

 product which was expected to result from this immense 

 experiment. Cocoanut-planting had been found profit- 

 able elsewhere, notably in the island of Ceylon. The 

 world was rapidly increasing its capacity for absorbing 

 products of all sorts, and doubtless would be ready for 

 this one by the time it was ready. 



On paper, the prospective profits could be figured 

 easily enough. The cocoanut-tree comes into bearing 

 at from five to eight years of age. When it has reached 

 full maturity it will produce from 300 to 400 nuts per 

 annum. Some authorities place the average at one nut 

 per day for each day of the year. Thus the annual crop 

 of nuts from this grove would amount to the extraordi- 

 nary number of 120,450,000 ; or, on the basis of loS trees 

 to the acre, as planted, each acre would yield 39,420 nuts. 



In the great markets of New York, Baltimore and 

 Liverpool, prices have usually ranged from $3 to $6 per 

 100, never going as low as $2. From this grove, they 

 could be placed in either of these markets at an expense 

 of not more than one cent each. Figure the profit upon 

 the whole for yourself. It might range anywhere from 

 $1,250,000 to $2,500,000 ormore per annum. "There's 

 millions in it !" Yet notwithstanding these glittering 

 possibilities, it is by no means certain that a single nut 

 will ever find its way, intact, to the great markets of the 

 world. There are few trees which will yield such a 

 diversity of useful products as this, and this enterprise 

 is being conducted on a scale that suggests that these 

 products w'ill be made available in every manner which 

 science and commerce can propose. As yet no effort 

 has been made to gather or dispose of the nuts which 

 have already been produced, although many of the trees 

 first planted have fruited somewhat for a year or two. 

 But as this product is scattering, and small as compared 

 with the expectations from the entire grove, and as the 

 plantation is remote, nothing will be attempted until 

 there are sufficient nuts to warrant working on a very large 

 scale. Cocoanut-growers at Palm Beach, Hypoluxo and 

 other points about Lake Worth are finding thus far a 

 ready market for the entire production of their groves, 

 which are usually of small extent (the outcome of the 

 wreck of the Providential), by selling the nuts for plant- 

 ing, at four cents each. A sound nut will produce one, 



two, and infrequently three sprouts, the latter number 

 being one for each eye, and these sprouts sell readily at 

 fifteen cents each when well started. This affords a 

 good profit in a small way, but how long this source will 

 be available is an open question. Just now there is a 

 rage for planting, both for commercial and decorative 

 purposes ; but whether the demand for the former of 

 these uses will be maintained, probably depends much 

 upon the success of Mr. Osborne's experiment. 



The possibilities that lie within range of that are many, 

 and can hardly be exaggerated. To gain an idea of 

 these, we have but to look at the palm-tree in its relation 

 to the daily and common needs of the Singhalese villager. 

 It supplies easily the most of his physical needs. It 

 may be said that his needs are few, but likewise is his 

 knowledge limited as to how these wants may be best 

 supplied. If our wants are greater, so is the genius with 

 which we invent the means of supplying them ; and with 

 our greater knowledge we should find uses for the palm 

 and its products of which the Singhalese ryot never 

 dreamed. Yet with him it is food and drink, the meat 

 and the milk of the nut supplying both. It furnishes a 

 cup that cheers and inebriates as well, a liquor called 

 "arrack" being fermented from the sap. The nutshells 

 give him a cup from which to drink it, while the plaited 

 leaves serve as plates and dishes from which to eat, as 

 well as for thatch for his humble cottage. From the 

 fibrous casing of the fruit he weaves ropes, nets and 

 matting. The dried flower-stalks are used as torches ; 

 the large leafstalks line his garden fence. The timber 

 of the tree is used for every purpose for which wood is 

 required, and the trunk when hollowed out serves either 

 for a canoe or a coffin. 



Besides these personal uses, the oil of the nut furnishes 

 a chief article of commerce, the shipments from Colombo 

 and Galle amounting to something like 1,000,000 gallons 

 per annum, albeit the native method of extraction is of 

 the most primitive sort. The oil is obtained from the 

 dried kernel of the nut, the native means being a 

 rude mill or checkoo, consisting simply of a heavy 

 wooden mortar in which a clumsy pestle of hard wood 

 is made to revolve by a pair of oxen at the end 

 of a long pole secured to the upper end of the pestle. 

 At Colombo, European merchants have latterly engaged 

 in the business, and by the use of steam-power are pro- 

 ducing large quanties of oil of a very fine quality. The 

 manufacture of foot-mats is now also carried on upon 

 an extensive scale by the employment of modern ma- 

 chinery, the fiber of the husk being used. This fiber is 

 called coir, and from it a rope is woven that is admirably 

 adapted for use in salt water, and many of the trading- 

 vessels of the country employ no other cordage than 

 this. 



We now come to the last and best-known use to which 

 any product of the tree is put — the preparation, from the 

 kernel of the nut, of that culinary article known as 

 dessicated cocoanut. It is not many years since this 

 first became an article of commerce and of general use ; 

 but it may already be found in every quarter of the 



