January i, 1890.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
481 
COMMERCIAL PEODUCTS OF THE 
COCONUT PALM 
(Comments on De. Watt's Monograph.) 
The use of the words " The mainland of the Mala- 
bar District " evidently arises from the mistake made 
by the writer that the Laccadives are, for adminis- 
trative purposes, under Malabar. What he really means, 
probably is the two West-coast districts of the Mad- 
ras Presidency, South Canara and Malabar, which 
have a sea board of over 250 miles. As these dis- 
tricts contain very different peoples, speaking different 
languages, and with totally distinct customs, it is 
highly probable that considerable differences may be 
found in their coir. We would, therefore, recom- 
mend that a collection of fibre should also be made 
from the North of South Canara. The four most 
northerly of the inhabited islands of the Laccadive 
group are, for administrative purposes, part of 
South Canara. The other four inhabited islands with 
Minicoy, some 200 miles further South, are attached 
to Malabar. Kiltan is part of South Canara. The 
Laccadive palm is not cultivated specially with a 
view to coir, but, as the revenue is paid in coir, 
that article is the chief staple of the islands. Mi- 
nicoy is under a different system. 
As regards the difficult points which exist regard- 
ing the coconut palms, which are expressed on p. 
192, by Dr. Watt in question, form: — 1. The palm 
is not grown expressly for coir. The ripe nuts, from 
which the coir has been stripped, are used for copra. 
2. The tree is tapped for toddy. If tapped contin- 
uously it cannot produce nuts or coir, as the flower- 
ing spathes are destroyed ; but, in some parts of 
South India, it is believed by the natives that the 
occasional tapping of a tree improves the yield of 
nuts, and, consequently, of coir and oil. The same 
tree may yield fibre, oil, and toddy ; but trees tapped 
for toddy are not allowed to yield nuts, and, there- 
fore, do not yield oil or fibre. 3. If the trees are 
tapped for fermented toddy, in some parts of the 
Madras Presidency a tax is paid on each tree. No 
tax is paid on trees tapped for the preparation of 
sugar. 4. If only one spathe is tapped, other may, 
at the same time, yield nuts, and, consequently, coir 
and copra. As a rule only one spathe is tapped at 
one tree in the Madras Presidency, because, at or 
about the time that the new spathe becomes suffi- 
ciently developed to yield toddy, the yield of the old 
one ceases. Occasionally one spathe ceases to yield 
before the next commences, and the tree becomes 
dry for some days; and, not unfrequently, the new 
spathe yields before the old one runs dry. 5. The 
number of nuts required to make a maund of dry 
copra varies with the size of the nuts. 
The statement on page 194, that " on the Eastern 
and Western Coasts it is particularly abundant, more 
so towards the South " is scarcely accurate as regards 
the West Coast, where the coconut palm is exceed- 
ingly abundant in the South Canara district. The 
statement that " all flower in the hot season, the 
nuts ripening from September to November " is in- 
correct, and is incompatible with the statement on 
page 195, that " a coconut throws out a spathe and 
a leaf every month : each flowering spike yields from 
10 to 25 nuts." As a matter of fact it produces a 
flower every month, and, in the absence of accidents, 
a crop of nuts is also produced every month. The 
statement that " the Indian region of the coconut 
may thus be said to be the lower basins of the 
Ganges and the Brahmaputra, and the Malabar 
and Ooromaudel Coasts" is incorrect. In the interior 
of the Madras Presidency the coconut is abundant, 
especially along the banks of rivers, irrigation chan- 
nels, and tanks. At Ranipet in the North Arcot 
district, there is a single tope believed to contain 
10,000 trees. In the Salem Taluk of the district of 
same name the tree tax was paid upon 19,398 coco- 
nut trees for the manufacture of fermented toddy in 
the half year ending 31st March, 1889, which is not 
the season for toddy drinking. In the same half-yea 
10,410 trees were tapped in the Triohinopoly 
Taluk for fermented toddy. The Salem Taluq con- 
61 
tains 1,072 square miles, and the Trichinopoly Taluk 
486 square miles. In South India the nuts are 
plauted with their points upwards, when they are sown. 
The rate of growth depends on the nature of the 
soil, the amount of attention which the young tree 
receives, and whether it is watered regularly or not. 
In the Laccadives trees sometimes bear in the fourth 
year. The following figures show the quantities of 
the products of the coconut palm received from the 
Laccadives during the last periods for which infor- 
mation is available. 
1. Islands attached to the District of Malabar.- — 
Coconuts. Number. Coir. Candies. 
Fasli Fasli Fasli 
1294. 1295. 1296. 
1294. 1295. 1296. 
Agatti 25,845 312 295 192 
Kaurati ... 2,760 3,929 7,200 451 458 304 
Androth 542 583 419 
Kalpeni 267 278 251 
Minicoy ... 439,852 32,000 194,408 14 10 
"' 442,612 35,929 227,453 1,586 1,624 1,166 
II. South Canare 
Islands : — 
Year. Coconuts. 
Coir. 
Jagg 
ery. Copra. 
1880... 988,000 No. 
853 
1 
379 cands. 
1881. ..2,301,000 „ 
856 
1 
362 „ 
1882.. .2,814,000 „ 
1883... 1,234,000 „ 
882 
3 
373 „ 
755 
6 
478 „ 
1884.. .2,509,000 „ 
482 
1 
408 „ 
1885.. .2,083,000 „ 
449 
1 
400 „ 
Average.1,988,100 „ 712-83 
2-1 
400 „ 
One Candy=560 lb. 
If compared with the figures given on pp. 206-7 of 
Dr. Watt's Monograph, the above show that a great 
deal of the West Coast coir is manufactured on the 
mainland. 
Lastly, it may be mentioned that the green nuts 
are not used for coir-making. The ripe nuts are 
useful for fibre. — Madras Mail. 
■ 
THE FIBRE INDUSTRY IN TRINIDAD 
was thus discussed at a meeting of the Agricultural 
Board of the Colony : — 
Professor McCarthy said that his motion for the 
importation of a small decorticating machiue explained 
itself. There were several valuable fibre-producing 
substances here, but the mode of extraction was very 
tedious and a good deal of fibre was lost. His Ex- 
cellency the Administrator suggested that he should 
bring this motion forward iu order that the exact pro- 
portion of fibre in each plant should be ascertained. 
Some of the fibres were very valuable, but they were iu 
non-paying quantities, and such a machine was required 
in order that definite information could be obtained. 
The Chairman said there was a Report received from 
the Royal Gardens at Kew on the fibres obtained from 
plants grown at the Bocas islands, and he understood 
that it was reported that they were equal to Sisal hemp. 
The Government had also communicated with the 
English Consul at Yucatan. There were one or two 
plants in the Botanic Gardens which were supposed to 
be the true Sisal hemp, aud it was proposed to propa- 
gate them as much as possible. A part of Naparima, 
aud also from Arima northward towards Matura, and 
away again towards Sangre Grande, were magnificent 
fibre-producing districts which were now utterly useless 
and there was not the slightest doubt that plants would, 
grow a great deal better there than they did at the 
Bocas. Members had seen the Report of the person 
who was sent from the Bahamas to Yucatan to report 
on the fibre industry there, and he thought that from 
sixty thousand dollars' worth they had gone up to about 
four or five hundred thousand dollars a year, and 
always found a ready sale for their fibre. It was a pro- 
duct in constant and increasing demand. The industry 
was started in Yucatan by means of the Mexisau Govern- 
ment wisely putting a very heavy tax on all lauds that 
were not planted with Sisal hemp. Ka'her tban lose 
their lands the people planted them, the consequence 
being that the country was flourishing instead of being 
