388 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1887. 
ASPHALT PAVEMENTS. 
To the Editor " Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter." 
Sir, — What are the best compounds for making 
asphalt pavements — something which has been tested 
with good results ? E. 0. 
[The wearing surface is composed of four parts, viz : 
1. Refined asphaltum. 2. Heavy petroleum oil or the 
residuum of the same. 3. Fine sand. 4. P °ne powder 
of carbonate of lime. Asphaltum is refined and brought 
to a uniform standard of purity and gravity. The 
heavy petroleum oil, which may be the residuum by 
distillation of petroleum, must be free from water, 
light oils and other objectionable impurities, of specific 
gravity 18 to 20 deg. Beaume, and must bear a heat 
test of 250 deg. F. By melting and mixing these two 
hydrocarbons, heavy petroleam oil and asphaltum 
the matrix of the pavement, called " asphaltic cement,', 
is obtained, which cement has a fire test of 250 deg. 
F., and at a temperature of 60 deg. F. has specific 
gravity of about 1-25. They are mixed in the followiog 
proportions by weight : 
Kefined asphaltum 100 parts 
Heavy petroleum oil 20 parts 
The pavement mixture is formed of the following 
materials, and in the proportions stated : 
Asphaltic cement from 12 to 16 
Sand from 73 to 67 
Pulverized carbonate of lime from 15 to 17 
Total . 100 100 
These proportions are varied according to circum- 
stances, as may be neoessary to secure the best 
practical results. The carbonate of lime may be reduced 
or omited entirely when suitable sand can be obtained . 
In order to make the pavement uniform the proportion 
of asphalt cement must be varied according to the 
quality and character of the sand. — Ed.] 

THE COCONUT. 
Since it has become known that our fair state of 
Florida is capable of great things in the growing of 
coconuts, considerable interest is taken in the subject. 
This delioious nut as a fruit but a short time 
sinoe was brought to our shores from the tropics in 
irregular ways, much as a. luxurious delicacy. Now 
the nuts are so extensively used in various ways, 
that they have become quite an important article 
of trade, and are destined to become greater still. 
There is no vegetable growth in the great econ- 
omy of nature bearing so important a part in satis- 
fying the many wants and desires of man as the 
coconut tree and its products. It is a palatable 
and highly nutritious food and most delicious drink. 
It provides him shelter from the inclemencies of 
the weather, suitable raiment for his person, and 
its uses for necessary conveniences and fancy are 
so many as to be scarcely creditable. 
Considering the great usefulness of this tree it is 
not surprising that where grown they are so highly 
prized. They are familiarly and quite generally known 
as 'our friend.' Where the coconut is planted and 
grown for profit the income derived is very great, 
most sure and reliable, while the labor or expense 
of cultivation is nothing.* Once a favourable spot is 
selected in which to plant and the seed nut set in 
the ground, nature does all else; indeed, until the 
tree matures into bearing it must be left entirely 
and absolutely to itself. Then for generations it is 
almost a constant harvest. Some of the peculiarities 
of these trees are strange. The tree, for instance, 
is larger in diameter at eight years of age than at 
forty, or ever after. When young the tree just 
above the ground swells out to great proportion, 
sometimes over three feet in diameter, from which 
the trunk continues smaller to its feather like top. 
As it grows older the bulb is gradually absorbed and 
gradually disappears. The tree never grows perpend- 
icular, but leani' g. When ripe its fruit drops to 
the ground ia the night time only.* It requires 
•Neither statement is correct: cultivation costs 
something and the trees respond to attention ; while the 
nuts, if not plucked, will certainly fall at all hours. —Ed. 
quantities of salt water to nourish it, which it in- 
dustriously pumps up in gallons through its queer 
looking and pipelike roots into the growing coconut, 
where, by some process and formula of nature, it is 
as by magic changed to a most exquisite and spark- 
ling drink, hence proximity to the ocean is a necessity 
to this wonderful tree. 
It is unfortunate that this graud plant can be 
grown only in the tropics, where the people are s» 
indolent and human blood is so tired, for it has 
never received proper attention and its nature and 
characteristics no study, for sloven southerners are 
content to do things in the most primitive way, 
just as their ancestors did it ages ago, and today 
they peel or strip off the fibrous husk in which the 
nut is encased by aid of a sharpened stick, precisely 
as it was done in the good old days of Confucius. 
Time, although measured by the liberal scale of 
centuries, is of small consequence to them in mak- 
ing preceptible progress and material development. 
The native is ignorant of the best conditions and 
habits of this to them inestimable product as are the 
thoughtless monkeys and unreflecting parrots which 
inhabit the adjacent tree tops. He has ever been 
content to pluck and eat, never planting, but with 
sweet san souci puts his whole reliance on his kind 
old friend, nature, who never fails him, and who 
does his sowing by aid of the tornado and the 
hurricane, tearing up and scattering both tree and 
seed nut over the land. The friendly whirlwind 
comes often enough for his planting purposes, why 
should he fret his laggard brain therefore, with tire- 
some questions of seed time, for the harvest is ever 
with him in lavishness. He lives in perpetual plenty, 
and the bountiful supplies of nature surround him. 
In favourable weather the coconut tree has a suc- 
cession of crops each six weeks to gladden his heart, tickle 
his palate, and satisfy the demands of his stomach. 
After many centuries of neglect and haphazard 
growing the coconut tree has finally met in Mr. Ezra 
Osborn, of Middletown, N. J., one who is developing 
and making this plant the subject of careful study 
and investigation. Mr. Osborn is a gentleman of rare 
mental attainments, an enthusiastic worker, full of 
energy, and possessed of a large fortune, has re- 
duced the desultory fragments of knowledge pertain- 
ing to the subject he could gather into system, and 
today he is the most thoroughly posted man on it 
in the world. He has learned what he could in 
communicating with tropical countries in his researches, 
planted the nut, and raised the tree in various con- 
ditions, observed and studied their development, and 
learned their habits and peculiarities. 
The popular belief has even been that there were 
several varieties of the nut. Mr. Osborn finds but 
one, and says that what appears to be differences in 
variety are but the result of influence, such as climate, 
soil, location, nourishment, &c, that so susceptible 
are they to outward things as to quickly assume an 
apparently decided individuality peculiar to itself. 
No matter where the seed nut hails from the tree 
grown from it will adapt itself to the locality where 
it stands and takes an apparent change of feature. 
Mr. Osborn found that parts of Florida below the 
27th parallel were peculiarly adapted to growing coco- 
nuts, especially on the southeast coast and on the 
adjacent keyes. He finds that locality, because of 
the quality of soil and the underlying substrata of 
lime, then together with the rare climate, is the 
best and most productive coconut growing region 
known. He found the fruit on the few bearing trees 
there to be of large size and of superior quality. 
Mr. Osborn saw wonderful possibilities of the locality, 
and at once purchased all the land he could secure 
there suited to the purpose, a nd started groves of 
coconut trees, until now he has growing over 300,000 
young trees, which is by far the most extensive scale 
on which they were ever cultivated before. His lands 
extend along the ocean for over sixty miles, thirty- 
five miles of which are young coconut trees. They 
are all planted in the best manner for large yields, 
and all stand near the restless breakers, where their 
long reaching roots can get to the salt water, and their 
