holds that do not use the nuts in some form or other, and in spite 
of the vast number of trees, the supply does not seem to equal the 
demand. 
Before the shell of the nut becomes thick and hard and while the 
meat is soft and about the consistency of clabber, many of the nuts 
are gathered and sold upon the street corners and in the drink 
shops. The nuts are. cut open with a machete. The milk proves 
a most refreshing drink, while the meat is eaten with a spoon or, 
more often, with a sliver cut from the shell. No attempt is made 
to husk the nuts so used, though frequently a portion of the husk 
is trimmed off to lessen weight for transportation. 
The hard-shelled or ripe nuts have various uses. When of good 
quality, they are sold at retail. Many Lind of sweet-meats are 
also made from them, while the milk and the meat, variously pre- 
pared, are constituent parts of many articles of daily diet, such as 
lish stews, beans, rice, corn, etc. The ripe nuts are always sent to 
market husked. They are brought to Bahia by small sailboats, 
which ply up and down the coast, and on account of the demand 
are sold at comparatively high prices. The price paid for them at 
the plantations ranges from 9 to 14 milreis ($2,18 to $3.36) per 
hundred (without respect to size,) according to seasons, the whole- 
sale price in Bahia City being a couple of milreis higher per hun- 
dred. The retail price is from 120 to 320 reis (2.88 to 7.61 cents) 
per nut, according to size and season. 
There is such a demand for good nuLs at Rio de Janeiro and 
other points south that it is far more profitable to ship the nuts 
there than to utilize them in the manufacture of copra ; and even if 
the prices at local markets were not so good, there would, never- 
theless, be no nuts for foreign export. 
It is only the nuts that have been left too Jong on the trees that 
are utilized in the manufacture of by-products. From these nuts 
the oil is crudely extracted by grinding the meat, submitting it to 
pressure and purifying the resulting liquid, or by grinding and 
boiling the meat, and skimming the oil. This oil is used for 
machinery, lamps, cooking, soap-making, etc. It is also used bv 
the resident Africans for hair oil and for anointing the body. It 
sells at wholesale at the place of manufacture at from 800 to 1,200 
reis (19.2 to 28.8 dollars cents) per litre. 
There is still a great amount of uncultivated laud well suited 
for coco-nut plantations. Few trees are being planted, yet it 
requires no labour other than that of putting a mature nut into the 
ground prior to the rainy season, and that" after five or six years 
the trees will bear almost indefinitely. 
Coco-nuts in Colombia. 
The consul at Cartagena, Colombia, was placed at a disadvantage 
in gathering data for his report on account of the revolution in that 
country. Under ordinary conditions, writes the Consul, raising 
of coco-nufs is an interest of considerable magnitude, and a fair 
amount of attention is bestowed, upon the groves and the collection, 
husking, sorting, and packing of the nuts. It may be said that, 
