Feb. 2, 1903.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
5S9 
batter is made and sold in England than by the 
whole of the factories manufacturing this article on 
(he Continent and America combiued. 
Toward the end of the article in your Oct. 2i)th. 
issue the writer says : " English manutuclnrers 
have lately learned something of the bleaching 
method as in use here (meaning Marseilles) and are 
employing it." 
1 venture to suggest that "lately" is hardly the 
right word to use, for the manufacture in England 
of a hard coconut butter was undertaken about 
sixteen years ago by the predecessors of Loders & 
Nnooline, of London. 
Furthermore, the "bleaching" is not the serious 
difficulty, nor is the elimination of the three volatile 
fatty acids mentioned in your articles, viz : caproic, 
capric and caprylic. 
The value of a perfect process lies more in the 
entire elimination of the non-volatile fa'ty acids and 
in certain preliminary and final treatments. 
The large chocolate manufacturers in this country 
make a very thoroagh and scientific examination of 
their raw materials ; they require coconut butter to 
be guaranteed pure and to consist only of the 
searine of oil of the coconut (rocos nucifera and 
Cooos butyraoea). It must contain no extraneous 
matter, and yet have a high melting point in order 
that the candies produced with it may " stand 
up " well in hot weather. 
It must also be refined to a nicety and be abso- 
lutely neutral. 
The patents and secrets of manipulation used in 
producing a first-class coconut butter are exceedingly 
valuable, no doubt, but there is no royal road to the 
manufacture, and when a perfect product is aimed 
at, great care at all stages of the process is the 
first consideration. 
As " touchin ' on and appertainin ' to " thi? 
subject, the following reprint of an extract from 
the recent controversy in the English scientific 
journals may be found of interest. 
The original article which was headed " Utilizing 
the Coconut," concluded by saying ; — 
The coconut is utilised entirely— the fiber from the 
husk being used for coconut mats, matting and 
brnshe.<; the shell is used for fuel, and the cake 
which remains in the hydraulic press after squeezing 
out all the oil is a valuable feeding cake for cattle, 
whilst the dreg which is extracted in the refining 
of the oil is very largely used for making soap and 
candles. 
The manufacture of " desiccated coconut " was 
not, however, included. This is very largely an 
American industry and right in New York over 30,000 
selected nuts are treated daily by the Dunham 
Manufacturing Co., who own large palm plantations 
in Cahe,.— Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter. 
COCONUT CULTIVATION IN 
TRAVANCORE. 
The Settlement Operations in Travancore have 
involved the counting of nearly 800,000 coconut 
trees, and as an area of .slightly over ten thousand 
acres, or cue-sixth of the occnpiert area in 
the State, pays no taxes, we may take it that) 
the number of coconut palms is far in excess of 
that which has been accounted for. Indeed, if 
we bear in mind that very many years a-o, it 
•was calculated that there were twenty millions 
of coconut palm trees in the south-west of Ceylon 
alone, then Travancore ought surely to be cre- 
dited wich a good deal over a million trees for 
(lU along the coast as well as in the Ibelt oi 
Hit country which runs ten miles inland, there 
is nothing;' but a dense, unbi oken, m.xss of coconut 
and areca groves, and forty coconut trees to 
the acre is a very moderate computation. 
So important is the coconut industry in Tra- 
vancore that on certain Crown lands, in addition 
to the money tax on coconut trees, the tenant 
has to contribute one coconut frond for every 
anna of his assessment and about twenty 
thousand fronds ate thus paid in on these parti- 
cular lands. The staple industry in Travancore is 
the cultivation of the coconut tree, rice being 
grown only in the hollows between the laterite 
ridges and the amount reaped does not suffice even 
for home consumption. Lord Curison, when he 
visited the State two years ago, remarked with 
characteristic humour; "Here every man has 
three acres and a palm tree." Hereupon, Mr 
Mackenzie, the British Resident, told us not long 
aflerwaids, that if Lord Cur zon had said : '"three 
acres and thirty palm trees," he would have been 
much nearer the truih, and we may add that his 
analysis shows that the average holding of a ryot 
is two and one- third acres, with thirty-five fruit 
trees. 
The assessment of lands in Travancore is all 
in favour of the taxpayer, for the average demand 
on garden and dry lands is Ke. 118, in addition 
to an assessment ranging from eight pies to 
one anna eight pies on each coconut tree, 
and as each tree is estimated to bring in from 
R2 to R4 a year, the poorest ryot can very 
well afibrd to meet the assessment, more espe- 
cially as the soil, the warmth and humidity of 
the climate, the neighbourhood of the sea, the 
brackish lakes, and the equable distribution of the 
rainfall are all congenial to the growth of the tree. 
In some parts no labour whatever is required and 
the tree almost grows wild. It has been observed 
that the cultivation increases steadily from year 
to year, hut we fear, this is not altogether to be 
commended, for though within recent years new 
economic uses have been found for the palm, among 
others, the manufacture of coconut butter, there 
is always the danger of overproduction. More- 
over, tlie overstocking of gardens is calculated to 
produce deterioration in the quality of the truitt 
Up to now, nothing of this sort has perhaps occur- 
red, and a few years ago at a local exhibition, 
a bunch of coconuts with 153 nuts was on show, 
and another, with ninety-tive, though the number 
required in the prize list was fixed at no more than 
forty. Of course every tree does not bear like 
this, but, as a rule, the Travancore coconut pro- 
duces very proliflcally, and would be a far larger 
source of income to the husbandman were it not 
for the ravages of its numerous insect and animal 
enemies. Among these are two very destructive 
coleopterous beetles. Then, there are the rats, 
monkeys, toddy cats, flying squirrels and other 
rodents, which do considerable damage to plant- 
ations. The natives are so supine in all matters 
affecting their own welfare that beyond an occa- 
sional rat hunt or an excursion after beetles, 
undertaken at distant and irregular intervals, they 
have never realised the great value of combining 
and organising their forces with the object of 
destroying these enemies of theirs. This is one of 
those matters in which the enlightened and pro- 
gressive Ooverument of the State might usefully 
undertake to educate the ryots, with profit both to 
the State coffers and to the purse oi the taxpayer. 
— " C" in Capital, 
