Nature and Art, April 1, 1867.] 
THE COCOA-NUT PALM. 
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pigs and poultry, and is an excellent manure. 
The trees are not uncommonly cultivated with great 
care ; heavy ripe nuts being selected for planting. 
The young shoot forces its way through one of the 
eye-holes, and when the youug trees are about three 
or four feet high they are with a little salt placed in 
pits prepared for their reception. 
A strange notion prevails amongst the cocoa-nut 
planters that the groves are much benefited by 
having walks arranged and conversations carried on 
amongst them. “ The cocoa-nut tree loves to hear 
the sound of footsteps and pleasant voices,” say 
they : the idea is a very poetical and pleasant one 
in its way, no doubt, but, like many others of that 
order, has its practical disadvantages, as any 
sauntering, gossiping group would find out to their 
cost should a ripe well-developed cocoa-nut drop 
“ plump down” on the top of one of their heads. 
In such a case we are disposed to think the nut 
would have the best of it, and the thoughts of the 
luckless saunterer, should any be left to him, 
would change, like those of Newton when the pippin 
fell, “ from mirth to gravity.” 
In moderately favourable situations the cocoa 
palm commences bearing at from ten to thirteen 
years of age, and remains at full maturity for between 
fifty and sixty years, producing, at a rough calcu- 
lation, one hundred nuts annually. The tree then 
usually begins to deteriorate and fall off in its 
yield, continuing in this failing condition for about 
twenty years, when it ceases bearing altogether 
and shortly dies. It is rather curious that wood of 
the best quality should be obtained from trees in 
this state ; the Porcupine wood of commerce is 
thus procirred, as is the timber of which many of 
the war clubs and other matters of equipment 
possessed by the natives are made. The palisades of 
their fortified villages, the beams, uprights, and 
rafters of their huts and council chambers are 
made from the trunk of the cocoa tree, as are the 
ii. 
water-pipes used for irrigation, Ac. The thatch 
covering the houses is laid with the prepared mid- 
ribs of its leaves, and secured with cord twisted 
from the cocoa fibre ; the nets and fishing lines 
are also made from it ; beautifully woven baskets, 
usually filled with freshly-gathered nuts for the 
day’s- consumption, are made from the plaited 
strips of the leaf ; and cocoa cloth protects the fresh 
green fruit from the sun. Torches are made by 
binding together a sufficient number of dry leaflets, 
the end of the mid-rib serving as a handle to hold 
them by ; the trunks of the fruit-bearing palms 
growing in and about native villages often have 
numbers of the dry leaves lashed fast to them, so 
that on any prowling urchin, on plunder bent, 
attempting to climb the tree, a sharp rustling 
sound is made and the culprit at once detected. 
A number of methods are had recourse to for 
ascending the tall stalks of the palms, according to 
the district in which they grow. By some persons 
they are climbed by fastening the two ankles 
together with a strip of tough bark, making it act 
as a support by causing it to partly embrace the 
tree ; others cut a row of notches just lai’ge enough 
to admit the end of the great toe, and thus make a 
sort of staircase of the tree. In some localities a 
band is cast round both tree and native, when the 
soles of the feet are applied straight against the 
trunk, and he literally walks up. The toddy- 
drawers often throw coir ropes from tree to tree like 
huge spiders’ webs, and then travel about on them 
much as an overgrown spider would do. An 
endless variety of beautiful mats are woven from 
the split leaflets, whilst floor-cloths, bags, and 
rubbers are made from the fibrous coir of the nut 
husks and the envelopes of the young fronds. In- 
credible quantities of coir are now used in this 
country. The mighty cable, the tough and trusty 
hawser, and the buoyant life-line are of this 
curious fibre, some of which may perchance have 
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