December i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
389 
great leaves receive u continual and abundant supply 
of oceau spray, carried into their ever thirsting 
heads by the busy trade winds coubtantly blowing over 
the tireless oceau there. Iu order to plant, this vast 
forest it has required three seasons and the united 
labor of a large company of trail '.od men. Seed nuts 
for tho purpose were got iu schooners from South 
America, from Trinidad and the Spanish main. The 
labor, C8*e, trouble, and expense attending it has beep 
great, but handsome returns can be expected. The 
country thereabouts is wild and unsettled, and those 
who go there are mostly sojourners in winter from 
the inclement northern 6tates. There they spend 
the cold months living in tents. Winter life in trop- 
ical part of Florida is full of romance and pleasure. 
Oold is unknown and all the winter lovely flowers and 
luscious fruit are abundant. Game and (ish are quite 
common. Oysters, crabs and other delicacies are 
plentiful. Gigantic vegetation gives grateful shade, 
and the sweet sougs of tuueful birds are a continual 
serenade, while ou the seashore rare and curious shells 
are found at every step. Out door life is most 
charming ; fresh pure air fills the lungs at every 
breath. It is uot surprising that invalids here gain 
rapidly iu health and strength, for this reason northern 
people seek this locality and here pass the winter 
in dreamy blissfulness. 
Every part of the coconut tree and its products 
is of value. The flowers or blossoms and roots are 
an astringent, and are extensively used as such in 
debilitating diseases.* 
The wood of tho tree when young has a fibrous 
consistency, and resembles a huge rope, used then 
for spiles ; in building docks and bridges it is the 
best possible material for the purpose, as it never 
rots, and it is well nigh iudestruotible. When older 
the wood becomes solid, very hard, and will take a 
high polish, and is then known as porcupiue wood. 
Tho sap is by a simple process converted into a 
strong alcoholic liquor. Sugar is also made of it in 
profitable quantities, but it injures the tree and 
diminishes its bearing. 
The milk is made into cocoa wine. The stem of 
the great-leaf makes good arrows, excellent spear 
handles, and elegant canes which when broken, 
presents sharp needle lilte punts, winch ean br aim 
as deadly weapons iu thrusting. Carrying these 
canes is prohibited by law in Cuba, where they are 
designated iu the • act as dangerous weapons. The 
husk which covers the nut is composed of fibre, which 
cut transversely makes useful cleaning brush for the 
housekeeper. This same fibre is manufactured for 
tho trade into matting, cloth, brushes, parchment, 
paper, &c. The shell of tho nut is made into cups, 
and carved into various forms anil things, but is 
more largely used to adulterate spices being ground 
up for the purpose. 
The young leaves are used for food, being cooked 
they somewhat resemble cabbages. The thin fiorous 
and delicate case within which tho leaflet appears is 
made into fish lines, fine cloth, and is fine, soft, exceed- 
ingly strong and tenacious. Ropes made of this aro 
superior to hemp or any other known substance, being 
durable and strong, floats in the water, and never 
rots. For use about ships they prove themselves to 
be of the greatest value. 
The oil obtained from tho nut is well known, and 
is used for a variety of purposes whero a superior 
kind is desired. Down south whero oiling the body 
is a grateful process, it is used for that purpose. The 
poorest of it is used as an ingredient in making the 
DOC t soaps and of cocoa butter used iu medicine as 
a basis for salvos. Desiccated coconut is now an im- 
portant element in pastry, sweets, meats, and con- 
fectionery. The sa'e for tlp -e purpo.es is very great 
and faottjaaing y nrly The demand for those nses 
alnno will ever bo so great as to tax the capacity 
of all tho coconut producing laud in tho world 
nvailnblo for tho purpose. The base of the leaf m ik i 
an excellent puddle for the canoe or dug-out, the 
natives fans are also made of tho leaf. The qualities 
• Entirely uew to us.— En. 
of this tree would indeed fill a book. Unfortunately 
the land suited to the succos.sful growth of the 
coconut ia exceedingly sin ill, therefore over-production 
need never be feared. Toe demand will continue to 
be great and more than the supply. 
The profits attending the raising of coconuts is 
sometimes marvellou ; for example, each boating tree 
will produce nuts yearly to the value of $4 and up- 
ward, estimated very low, above all expenses. Each 
acre of land accommodates a little more than 100 
trees, hence on ten acres a clear yearly profit of $4,000 
and more is made. All this, with little or no care or 
labor but the harvest, which consists of the picking 
the nuts from tho ground, one hundred acres of 
land in coconuts will produce an income not to be 
despised. The Florida coconut is a large nut of 
superior quality, and will no doubt occupy a front 
place in the market. 
The vase groves of Mr. Osborn were planted during 
the past three years aud will begin to bear in from 
five to six years, hence in seven years or so they bo 
producing millions of delicious coconuts.* 
Besides the groves of Mr. Osborn others have made 
extensive plantations in the vicinity, and are devoting 
to their growth much of their time, and in a few years, 
when the thousands of nuts now being plauted are 
bearing trees, the coconut industry will be the most 
extensive and important of Southern or tropical Florida. 
— Monmouth Inquirer. 

INDIAN EXPERIENCES. 
(Continued from page 348. ) 
The history of the introduction and subsequent 
establishment of the Ohiuchona plant on the hill 
tracts of India has been often written, but a rapid 
retrospect may not be out of place iu these papers. 
In iutroducting the plant into British India the 
primary object of the Government was ostensibly 
providing the natives of tho fever-stricken districts 
with a cheap febrifogo. Before its introduction 
quinine and other forms of Chinchoua bark extract 
were only obtainable by the wealthy, tho prices to 
the masses of the natives being prohibitory. It was 
not intended, in the first instance I bolieve, that the 
State, for any length of time at least, should keep 
itself in the position of a private producer aud 
trader, and regularly place large consignments of 
bark ou tho London market in competition with 
privalo individuals. This practice, however, has been 
kept up ever since its adoption in the year 1872, 
when the trees plauted at the commencement were 
twelve years old. In consequeuce of this there have 
been loud and general complaints by private planters 
against the successive Governments of the day. 
It was in the year 1859 that Her Majesty's 
Government engaged the services of Mr. Clements 
R. Markhatn for the special duty of introducing tho 
Ohinchona plant into India. He started on an ex- 
pedition to South America in the early part of 
1860, and arrived iu Iudia at the end of the same 
year with tho first instalment of Ohinchona plauts. 
Mr. Markham was ably assisted iu the arduous and 
dangerous work of collecting, establishing iu cases, 
and subsr quent transmission to India of the different 
species of Ohinchona plants by Mr. Spruce and Mr. 
Cross, both, I believe, practical gardeners and 
botanists. Tho plants were taken to the Nilgiri Hills 
ami placed under the care of tho late Mr. W. G. 
Mclvor, at that time Superiuteudent of the Govern- 
ment BttanioaJ Gardens at Ootacamiind, and who 
was subsequently appointed Superintendent of tho 
Government Chinchoua Plantations on the Nei'gherries. 
Under his able management the plauts iutro tuoed 
from South AinOiira were rapidly propagated, and 
the magnificent permanent plantations of the present 
day estnbli-bod. The Government, boyoud all question, 
wero fortunate iu having at hand a gentlomnn of 
• If the whole :tOH,(MH) tiees wa re in lull bearing 
and .iolded 10 nuts each, '.In result « add be \Z 
millions. But a proportion of the trots will di«t »ud 
full bearing doe* not eomo at twice wvcu ye»r«.— Ep 
