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Show Don't tell the mall bora where yon plant them however. In Alias Haroout's Florida fruits twenty-three pages are given to the cocoanut. Reasoner advertises adver-tises ten species ol oocos, the cocoanut being valued at 60 cents and $1. Though tropical tre, he says it grows wild on the 1 lorlda Keys and some other places outside of the tropics. I dp not know whether the tree Is a success suc-cess in California but It would undoubtedly undoubt-edly do well on the peninsula of Lower California and would probably grow here as an ornamental tree. At any rate It would cost nothing to try It. We have monkeys to eat the nuts but their near relatives, the small boys, would take a contract to dispose of all w could raise in and about Long Beach. I would hke to teo The cocoanut tree ; Where the breaker roar On the Lonjf Beach shore- ' . What a lorelT sight it would be to m. -Long Beach Cal. Breaker. Tlio Ooooaiiut. "To him the Plm Is s gift divine, n herein all uses of man combine, House, and raiment, and food, and wine." - Perhaps no other tree has so many acd so varied uses as the Cocos ncesfera or Cocoanut palm. To us this tree is known chiefly from its nuts which are sold so much in our stores. The word coco Is the Portuguesa word for monkey and was applied to the nut because be-cause its end looked like a monkey's bead. These nuts grow readily n a hot bed somewhat shady.. The tree is tall and graceful, growing fifty pr mre feet high and flowering at the top where from six to one dozen nuts grow in eaea cluster The Cocos Is the only palm which is a native of both hemispheres It ia eener. ally the first and often the only tree on a new. Island This Is due to t&e f CV that tne trees grow oest close to tha ocean, and the nnts dwpplns into the water are car-ried car-ried to all lands by tho waves and currents Carpets, brooms, boats, oars, ropes, mats, huts, candles, milk, wine, toddy cups, clothes, funs, burkets snears. bows boxes, flour, gum, honey, sugar, molasses! yeast, cement, torches, fuel, writing paper, pa-per, paint, beds, cushions.-the uses of this palm are almost Innumerable The land, between Lonsr Beach and Wilmington is of the kind adaptld to its culture, if the frosts are not too severe at first. Rats are almost the ouly enemy the tree would have, that animal beine ex tremely fond of young trees. r About one third of the sea coast of Florida is adapted to the culture of this nut and numerous groves are being planted. plant-ed. The nuts are so easily transported that cocoanut culture will never become very profitable here. The tre-s bear about eighty nuts a year, worth in San Francisco, Francis-co, about five cents apiece. The trees hear for abput seventy years, bejUaing when eix or seven years old. In KOod soli, with plenty of water, it will blossom every montn so that the tree constantly has flew-i-rs and ripe nuts upon it, making it of special value to the improvident savages who do not have to wait for summer visitors visit-ors before they know where their next msal is coming: from. The trees are planted about twenty-Ave ft. apart and are often put in long walks close to tho coast shore, for though the trees will grow well some few miles Inland In-land they do not bear fruit or bear but a very few nuts and those are poor one. The natives of Central America and other countries climb the trees by means of a band put around their bodies and around the tree. They go up after the nuts very rapidly, moving the band up the tree as they ascend. We here do not realize how much nicer and more digestible the fresh nuts are than those we buy at the stores. Four nuts a day are what a native needs and if a Long Beach boy should eat one nut from the store, Dr. Wood would have a serious Job on hand at once. The meat as the native na-tive eats it, is tender and not much harder than a good apple; the albumen part resembling re-sembling blanc-mange. The grated cocoanut coco-anut we buy at the stores is -musty and unwholesome. The nuts are mnch better tho' tbey are rather Indigestible when we get them. It would e a good Idea for our park gardeners to try some in eur parks. |