WHERE COCOANUTS COME FROM.

Western Star, Issue 2216, 24 June 1898, Page 5

WHERE COCOANUTS COME FROM.

AND HOW THEY CROW. Although the true and original home of the cocoanufc is India and the South Sea Islands, it has become so widely diffused by the hand of man and the waves of the ocean that it is now a prominent feature in almost every tropical portion of the globe, covering between 3.000. and 4,000,000 acres with its beautiful palms, and numbering about 250.000. trees, yielding annually 10.000. of cocoanuts. A recent approximate estimate of the area cultivated with the cocoanut palm gave the following result: —British India and dependencies, 300,000 ; Central America, 250,000; Ceylon, 300,000; Eastern Archipelago and Colonies, 350.000 ; Java and Sumatra, 220,000; Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, and African coast, 100,000 ; Pacific Islands, including Fiji, New Caledonia &c., 350,000; Siam and Cochin China, 100.000 ; and West Indies, 35,000. Such nuts as are wanted for planting are gathered into heaps, or placed under sheds, where they are allowed to remain until the sprout shows itself through the husk. When planted in regular order, holes about 3ft. deep, and from 15ffc. to 30ft. apart, are dug. In the hole the nut is placed with care, and covered with about Ift. of soil. The hole is filled gradually ns the sprout grows, until it reaches the surface, when it is left to itself, requiring no further attention. Should the place where the cocoanut is planted be any great distance from the seashore a quantity of salt is sometimes placed in the hole, and sometimes scraps of old iron, as, being strictly a salt-loving tree, it will thrive only a short distance from the seashore, nearness to salt water being absolutely essential to its welfare. In fact, it is said no magnet is truer to the pole than is the root of the cocoanut tree to the ocean ; for when the root breaks through the husk it pointsdirectly towards the sea, no matter in what position the nut is placed in the ground. Boring its way downward the root fastens itself so deeply and firmly in the ground that no tornado, no matter how severe, has ever been known to wrench it from its moorings ; but the hurricane, so frequent in the tropics, will often twist the tranks and carry the broken portions a long distance, thus killing that cocoanut palm, as it will not sprout a second time.

If a cocoanut is examined when in the process of sprouting, there will be found directly beneath the sprouting eye a small, white, mushroom-shaped kernel, and in this little germ lies the life of the future tree.

Shut up in its prison-like shell, and the shell surrounded by many inches thick of tough and tangled fibre, how is it to work its way out and perform the duty assigned to it? For it is apparently soft and tender as a baby’s hand. Soon its tiny fingers begin boring their way out of the weakest aye ; then, rending the tough woody fibre right and left, it'forces itself to the surface and commences the campaign of life, sending ita shoot upward to form the tree, and downward to form the roots, still clinging to its parent for support, until the entire’ inside of the shell ia filled with a round, ball-like substance that is formed by the congealed milk of the cocoanut. From it the roots fust forming receive their staff of life until the mother ‘ coke * becomes exhausted, and, having fulfilled her mission, is deserted by her offspring and left a useless mass of fibre.

On grows the tree, sending deep into the ground its roots and high into the air its trunk, until, after a lapse of from five to eight years it has attained a height of fronTdOft. to GOft., and then pays tribute to mother earth by bearing its first fruit, and, under favourable circumstances, continuing to yield for more than half a century, giving its owner from 100 to 200 marketable nuts a year.

Through the centre of the trunk of the cocoanut tree is a soft fibrous heart which furnishes the life of the tree and acta as a <rroat pump in forcing to the nuts the immense quantity of water required to (ill them.

This fibrous heart hns a wonderful filtering power, for no matter in what location the tree may be growing, either upon the beach, or in the malarial swamps near the pools of stagnant water, when nature bus done her work she deposits in the cocoanut a sparkling liquid as clear as crystal, and as cool as if drawn from the deepest well. Having no particular season for fruiting, but bearing all the year round, blossoms, as well as both ripe and green fruit, may be found on the same tree. The blossom of the cocoanut is a most beautiful and peculiar work of nature’s art. Appearing at the base of the long ragged leaves is a gourd-like sheath, green in colour, and standing erect until "ts own weight causes it to bend downward. where it hangs until the stems it incloses, which are to bear and sustain the nuts, are sufficiently matured to proceed on their journey without protection. When this outer covering splits open, it reveals a cluster of ragged stems, upon each of which will be found miniature cocoanuts, -requiriog about fourteen .months to ripen.