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Show Money Grows On Trees in These Romantic Lands! ( Original "Commodity Dollar" Still Keeps Wolf from Soath Seas Doors if 'IKif: i ' u 1 i M Tit i , v" i i il J IIIMainWMlVBWWBIIl'ri'r'ralviil Mil III! I iVIll'l" i ' - -"TT '1 "llll Hfl j ? J On glamorous Tropic Isles carefree natives let tne rest of the world roll by while the bountiful cocc ,ut palm, supplies them with all essentials of their existence. By Scott Irwin 4TV Y0U tnInk money grows on U trees?" This favorite retort of American husbands will never be effective with wives in the Mal-dive Mal-dive Islands. For them "Yes"! is the obvious comeback. Down in this little-known South Sea haven for the weary, money does grow on trees. They haven't dollar bills for leaves but they bear something just as good coconuts. And coconuts are money in the Maldive Isles. Laborers are paid with them and debts are contracted con-tracted and fulfilled with them. Coconuts are the original "commodity "com-modity dollar" The thrifty Maldive Mal-dive Island matron tries to stretch ber coconut money, instead of pinching her pennies, as we do in the land of the unedible dollar. But aside from passing as money, there are scores of other "believe-lt-or-nots" about coconuts which make them as intriguing and romantic ro-mantic as a hunt for pirate treasure. treas-ure. South Sea Island natives take it easy and let the coconut tree do the worrying for them about the essentials -of life. It is literally true that If these islanders had nothing but the coconut tree to supply sup-ply their wants, they could pass their days tn contentment. Most Useful Tree Requiring little cultivation the coconut palm would be worth Its salt If it supplied food alone. But tflere are 88 other different "needs u. which this tree fulfills. Besides raving delicious and nutritious food 3 ' drlrk, the outs, shells, leaves, j r, end -wood furnish the means Q tj.,,.tt.rfy!iig almost every Imagin--fj !e -T'"jitiv.3 -event The coconut e uj.'j'i!i tbs aative with Are- wood and building material, cooking cook-ing and eating utensils: provides his fishing net, woven from coconut fiber; and his canoe; gives him oil for his coconut shell lamp, and jaggery, jag-gery, or coconut sugar, to sweeten his food. Even in America, in addition ad-dition to the scores of coconut desserts des-serts which are familiar standbys, the versatile tree supplies us with coconut fiber doormats bidding us "Welcome", palm leaf fans, salt water soap, stock food, charcoal, and a host of other products. So important is the coconut in the South Seas, that when missionaries mission-aries went to Christianize the natives, na-tives, they found it necessary to change "our daily bread" In the Lord's Prayer to, "our daily coconut", coco-nut", in order to make it under-1 standable to their conv-3. .s. Easy Life Harvest time means nothing to coconut trees or to the fortunate folks who depend upon them for food, clothing, and shelter. The tree bears ripe coconuts continuously, and has frnit in all stages of development, de-velopment, from blossoms to rip-; ened nuts, simultaneously. Ask any farmer who has hustled 16 hours a day to get his crops harvested in time whether this means anything' Many of the lazier natives don't even go to the trouble of picking the nuts: They just wait for them to fall to the ground when they ripen; others train monkeys to climb the trees, and bring' them breakfast, lunch and supper. Willowy, graceful, fern-like and romantic, coconut palms are never-. theless huge trees. They grow 70 to 85 teet high, and their roots sometimes attain a depth of 60 feet. A coconut tree begins to bear when it is 5, 6. or 7 years old. and continues con-tinues for about 70 years.. .The average production is 40 coconuts a year, although some trees yield as many as 200. Forty coconuts will make about 13 pounds of the cocoru we know -the curling, shre": ; kind that tempts youngsters young-sters lingers when mother is baking. bak-ing. Bottle Makers In Malabar a father plants five coconut palms when a sci . .s born enough to keep the boy in "spending "spend-ing money" until he has to begin planting trees for his own sons! In Ceylon, the natives calculate their wealth in coconut trees. Twenty trees in full bearing are considered ample to support a family fam-ily man in comfort, providing his wife doesn't try to keep up with the Joneses. They provide a dowei for his daughter, a pension for his own old age, and a ready made form of life insurance for his widow. Ingenious natives have devised a method of emptying the meat from the coconut without breaking the shell. They punch ont the "eyes" theHwo small soft spots on the end of the nut and place the. coconut coco-nut in shallow water where a species spe-cies of tiny shrimp abounds. Hungry Hun-gry shrimps swim through the holes, eat tT,a meat, swim away, and leave a period bottle for the local John Barleycorns. Even more, inventive is the robber rob-ber crab of the Polynesian Islands. He climbs the towering trunk of the -palm tree picks a coconut, hammers the "eye" with his heavy claws until he 'make? a Jarge enough opening to insert his smaller claw, and extracts the pulp. ''"' Coconutsare "one of the oldest foods known to man. They are mentioned In the medical literature of India, in 1400 B.C., and there are references to them tn Sanskrit writings .laboriously carved in stone 3000 years ago. In thews days coconuts were not only prized as a great delicacy, but the oil wa used as medicine. And in man? parts of the world the coconut stil1 has varied religious significances Not only is the coconut an easr crop to harvest, but it is in manj cases self-planting. That is Vhy-nobody Vhy-nobody knows certainly where the coconut originated. Growing at th'. ocean's edge, the trees often Crxj ripened nuts Into the water. Th; heavy husk is waterproof and very buoyant, so the nuts may float for months, drifting with the wind ar;i4. currents until they are washed ashore. Action of the waves soon causes the triangular shaped mm to burrow Into the sand. Notions could be finer for a coconut tre-1 which thrives on sand and salt water, and before you could say "Walter Winchell" there is another an-other blessed event! Support Millions Coconuts were known In America in colonial times; in fact, pur chases of them are recorded in tho account books of George Washington. Washing-ton. But until 1S9G they were enjoyed en-joyed largely by people in seaport communities. Then a Philadelphia flour miller, Franklin Baker, was nuts from Cuba in payment for a shipment of flour. He developed new methods of opening, process- Iwo- anil nanlr-ino- tna Hilts RA thflt. coconut could be distributed anywhere. any-where. Today coconut cake is the second most popular cake' in the country, and only apple pie exceeds coconut custard pie in popularity. Although nobody knows exactly where the coconut originated, it is now scattered throughout the tropics, trop-ics, and today is the world's most important food fruit, supporting millions of natives. More than ten billion coconuts are produced every year or more than three hundred per second. If they were laid end to end, (which would look very silly) they -would encirple the Equator Equa-tor 90 times, or they would make enough coconut pies to keep all the husbands in the world happy until their golden, wedding day (which most men would say wasn't silly at all). "Grinning Face" The coconut did not get its name in the East, where the frnit was first mentioned in literature. Fronj the 6th to the 16th century it wa known as the India nut. Then the face-like appearance of the eyes on the nuts led the Portuguese and Spanish, who encountered them. In the East, to use the term "coco nuts, after their word "coco" meaning grin, or grinning face. To the average American, the feathery fronds of a palm tree swaying in the tropical breeze bring thoughts only of movie sets, coconut coco-nut frostings, or travel catalogues. But for millions and millions of people in far away lands coconuts are a matter of life or death . . i the central feature of their exist; ence. giving point even today to. the ancient proverb: "He who plants ft coconut tree, plants ves sels and clothing, food and drink, habitation for himself, and lertj tage for his children." |
