THE DAIRYMAN'S RIVAL.

Northern Advocate, 7 May 1914, Page 10

THE DAIRYMAN'S RIVAL.

COCOANUT FAT

The development of the cocoanut industry is not of any very direct importance to our agriculturists, but in several respects it has strong indirect interest to Australian primary producers. For instance, the residue oi* the cocoanut provides stock feed. On the other hand, the fat of the cocoanut is a competitor of the tallow produced by the pastoralist and of the butter, which is the mainstay of the dairy farmer. In these respects, therefore, the second edition of "Cocoanuts: The Consols of the East," by the editor of'"Tropical Life," is a book worth reading quite apart from the field for investment to which it .draws attention. In a foreword to the edition by Sir W..H. Lever there i 3 a paragraph for butter producers to ponder over: —"Strong as was the case for the p/ofitable ; outlook of COCOailUt planting -when I wrote the foreword to the first edition, it is stronger to-day. Copra has still further advanced, and the prospects are that this advance has not yet reached its ultimate limit, owing to the fact that the oil from the cocoanut is found to make the most excellent vegetable butter that can be produced, equal in every way and in many respects superior to natural cow butter. The price at which the vegetable butter can be sold, notwithstanding the present high price of copra, is less than half the price at which natural butter can be sold."

This gives point to the known fact that the manufacture of margarine from cocoanut butter is shortly to be entered upon in Australia on an extensive scale.

In his foreword to the first edition, to which Sir W. H. Lever refers, he painted this glowing picture of. the prospects:—"l kniw ig no field of tropical agriculture that is so promising at the, present moment as cocoanut panting, and I do not think in the whole world there is a promise of so lucrative an investment of time and money as in this industry. The world is only just awakening to the value of cocoanut oil in the manufacture of artificial butter of the highest quality, and 0 f the by-product, copra cake, as a food for cattle; this is of very great value, esepciallx'for dairy cows, where food is required that will not give .any added flavour to the milk or butter.-

"Given reasonable-precaution and care, there is very little risk of failure in cocoanut planting." Experience has greatly increased in the last ten years, with the result that the possibility of failure is reduced to a minimum. A large amount of capital is not required if the planter is willing to grow and cultivate annual crops during the period that his cbcoanut plantation is coming into bearing. The cost of clearing and planting is not of itself heavy; it is the loss of interest, the long wait, and the accumulation of expenses during the seven years it takes before a cocoanut plantation comes into bearing; but, with a planter on his own estate, cultivating other priducts for the sake «f their annual income, the amount of capital required to become the possessor of a rich cocoanut plantation is not excessive, and should not exceed £ 6 to £12. per acre, including every expense except- the planter's own labour and interest on capital. At the present price of cocoanuts — and there seems no immediate prospects of this price being reduced—the net income, to be derived,from an acre of fully-bearing cocoanuts would be £10 per annum, so that a compara-. tively small pantation of a couple of hundred acres would yield a net income of £2000.

"I see no reason wh'j' the various Governments affected should not give financial encouragement jto the establishment of cocoanut estates by helping the planter over the period which elapses before the plantation comes into bearing. If this were done, it would open up tropical possessions in a way that we can scarcely realise. It would increase the ties with the European countries, and find good wholesome food for their teeming millions; .* . .There are millions of'acres of waste land in tropical countries waiting to be developed, and all that is wanted is a little help from the authorities to convert waste tropical possessions into veritable gold mines,, producing wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, in occupation as well as in money, and, in addition, providing food for all." -

It can be readily understood that such a great development as "would provide food for all" cannot be broughts about without having its effect on the butter industry.