Facts About the Cocoanut.
A full-grown tree will mature from 60 to 100 nuts annually, writes a Philadelphia Record correspondent from Yucatan. In reality, the cocoanut is one of tlie most valuable tiees in the world, nearly every part of it being useful to man. The natives eat the young roots and weave them into baskets. The tender leaves are cooked like cabbage, and the old leaves are made into cloth, hats, baßketß, fans, lanterns, &o. It is also used for bedding, for thatching roofs, -for fishing nets, even for writing paper. The magnificent trunk of the tree famishes canoes, house posts and fences. The ribs of the leaves are so strong that they make excellent paddles for boats, arrows, combß, torches, and no end of other things.. When the wood is burnt it makes the very best potash for soap. By a process of fermentation, good vinegar can be got from it; and also a fair kind of sugar, which the Yucatecos call 'jaggery. ’ The name of the fruit is derived from the Portuguese word coooa and the English word nut. Cocoa means an * ugly mask,’ and is said to have been given because the end of a cocoannt looks like a. donkey’s faoe.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Mail, Issue 871, 9 November 1888, Page 4
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205Facts About the Cocoanut. New Zealand Mail, Issue 871, 9 November 1888, Page 4
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